


Amazonian AWOL

by beth9891



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Explicit Language, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Multi, Slash, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-20
Packaged: 2018-02-13 23:03:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 46,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2168601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beth9891/pseuds/beth9891
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During the final fight of Hogwarts Harry casts a spell that kills Voldmort but dissapears while doing it. No one knows what happened to their hero. 5 years later Draco and Blaise stumble upon the last person they expect. Through tension and adventure, feelings and old grudges are revealed. Will this journey bring them together or tear them apart for good? Slash.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Disappearing Act

**Prologue: Disappearing Act**

Missing person (s): A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and fate is not known. ...

* * *

 

**May 2, 1998**

**Hogwarts, Scotland**

The dust of destroyed stones clogged the air, air filled with the sounds of battle, ground strewn with its victims. The shouting was likely overwhelming to most, but Harry didn’t notice. No, the only thing that Harry could concentrate on was his own personal battle. A battle that would finally decide the end of a decade long war; a war for the Britain’s fate, a war for the wizarding world, but most importantly a war for his own survival. He and Voldmort circled each other calculatingly. Each looking for and trying to exhort each other’s weaknesses. Each silently daring the other to make the first move. Harry claimed this small victory as Voldmort’s impatient won out and he threw a violent hex tossed at Harry. One Harry responded to with a defensive shield. Curse after curse was exchanged, nothing less vicious then a severing hex from the former, nothing more violent than a Confundus by the second. Spell after spell, Harry leapt, dodged and dived, doing his best to avoid his likely death. The rest of the battles had ceased, the fighters turning their attentions toward the duo. Voldmort bolstered by their increased audience gave up the game, sending the infamous green Aveda Kedavra hurling towards Harry, only to collide with Harry’s own favored red Expelliarmus. What happened next no one could expect. A blinding light burst across the two figures, a violent scream tore from Voldmort’s lips, as his body began to disintegrate to ash. It was only when the last bit of ash fell to the ground that the onlookers looked to the conquer. Harry had done it, he had defeated one of the Darkest wizard‘s to ever exist. They had won! They looked. And then looked again. A few rubbed their eyes in confusion. A sound of disbelief rose from the light sided ranks. Their hero had vanished


	2. Queasy in Quito

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so this is also posted on fanfiction's site, note all of my setting descriptions are imagined (I have unfortunately never been to South America). Also all of my work is unbetated so please forgive the spelling/grammatical errors you find.   
> PLEASE REVEW. that is all....enjoy!

_ “altitude sickness _ _:_ _noun_ _Pathology_ _._

_a condition affecting some persons at high altitudes, caused by insufficient oxygen in the blood and characterized by dizziness, nausea, and shortness of breath. “_

**January 1, 2002 : Day 1 (Quito, Ecuador)**

Draco was starting to have some serious second thoughts.

When his best friend Blaise had approached him 6 months ago, filled with grand ideas of adventure, excitement and making a name for themselves, he had naively agreed with the block head. Now… now he was suffering or would soon be suffering the consequences of his momentary weakness.

“Do you know just how much I hate you right now?” Draco directed his question at his irritating, and rather calm friend.

“No, though I am sure that you will be glad to inform me” Blaise replied lazily, straightening the collar of his light weight wizarding robe, and side stepping a rather harried looking muggle traveler.

If Draco had not been currently using all of his pity for his own plight, he might have lent it to the muggles struggling to navigate their bulky luggage through the crowded arrival terminal of _Mariscal Sucre International Airport ._ Despite the rather ineffective set up of the airport (what with having the wizard apparition port directly next to the muggle arrival terminal), at least they did not have to struggle with multitudes of luggage. Thank god for shrinking charms.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this. I was PERFECTLY happy with my nice, comfortable office job. And for some unexplainable reason you convinced me to leave it to come traipsing in an insect infested swamp…” Draco griped tugging at his own collar. He of course had not had the insight to wear light weight robes and was finding the resulting sweat trickling down his back most unpleasant.

“Oh come off it, this is a brilliant idea and you know it! We are far too young and vital to be resigned to boring, mundane jobs. This is a chance to explore! To discover! You’ll love it” Blaise replied excitement shining in his eyes, no doubt from visions of the plants they would find.

It had been almost five years since the epic battle of Hogwarts. Five years in which the wizarding world mourned the disappearance of their savior and slowly put itself back together. With the left over prejudice against most Slytherins (ok, so maybe they HAD sided with the Dark lord until the very end, but come on…everyone makes mistakes!), it had taken both young men a few years to regain enough respectability to rise to their current positions.

Draco, as everyone had expected, had of course taken his skills at potions and become one of the youngest Potion Masters to date. At the age of 23, he had made a name for himself as an innovative thinker and skilled brewer. Even the Minstery could not ignore his skills and had eventually relented to employing him as one of their resident potion supplier and testers.

Blaise meanwhile had done the opposite of what everyone had expected from him. They had all thought that someone as charming, and politically neutral as he was, would have entered into politics or finance. No one had predicted he would become a botanist. After the death of his rather infamous mother, Blaise had decided to shed the pure blooded cloak and do what he wanted. And what he wanted was to study, grow and cultivate rare plants. Similar to Draco, he had managed to prove more than adequate in his chosen field and had been one of the top researchers for the Botanical Research and Cultivation division in the Minstery.

Because of the large over-lap of their prospective jobs, they worked closely together and had maintained their friendship post Hogwarts. When rumor of the existence of a thought to be extinct flower had surfaced, Blaise had been offered the chance to travel to the Peruvian Amazon to verify or disproof said rumors. Given that the flower, _Golden Gia Lily_ was believed to be an extremely useful ingredient in potions (an obsolete footnote in Salazar Slytherin’s personal notes stated it could be used to treat the mental after effects of the cruciatus curse), Draco’s head of department had signed off on him accompanying Blaise on this 14+ week excursion.

At the time, Draco had thought it would be a lovely holiday, consisting of a leisurely meander down the Amazon, stopping every few days to find and collect rare fauna for potions of course. This lovely illusion however was all but decimated after he took the time to read up on the Amazonian Rainforest and found out that the part of the Amazon they would be foraging through, the Peruvian Amazon was a magic free zone.

Apparently, Blaise had forgotten to mention the fact that the _Kapok_ tree’s that were found in multitudes in this section gave off chemicals that neutralized most forms of wizarding magic. Blaise had said ‘ops’ when Draco confronted him on this omission. Of course Draco had only found out after he could not possibly back out of the trip.

“Well, come on then we might as well find where we are staying and have a look around, that is if you are done whining for the time being” Blaise stated to follow the surge of exiting visitors.

Thankfully all of the registration and legal gobbley-gook had been sorted out on the English side. Draco shuddered at the thought of having to do it through the Ecuadorian counterpart.

It did not help that they had chosen to arrive in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, on New Year’s Day. The airport and surrounding area was even more clogged than normal. From what he had read in his travel guide (a guide that he had been sure to purchase before leaving), Quito was home to more than 2 million muggles, and 500,000 wizards. Draco had also read something about it being on or near an inactive volcano, something that did not sit well with the blond. In his reasoning the volcano had to have been active at some point, it seemed rather foolish to construct your capital near it, but that was muggles for you.

Blaise of course had the address of their accommodations but the idiot couldn’t read his own writing, so instead of a nice, simple apparition to said location they were forced to take the muggle way of transporting. Blaise of course was thrilled at getting the chance to experience a ‘taxi’ ride. Draco thought that it should have been renamed ‘death trap.’ By the time the hot, metal contraption had nearly run into every moving thing between the airport and their hotel, Draco was decidedly green.

It did not help matters that he had a killer headache and found himself rather short of breath. Blaise cheerfully notified him that he was likely experiencing altitude sickness, since Quito was located at a much higher altitude then London. Draco had responded with something about not signing up for sleeping on a bloody mountain, which Blaise chose to ignore.

All in all, they were both relieved to find and check into their hotel. Given the fact that their taxi had apparently gotten lost more than once, it was much too late to venture out and explore the city. Draco was relieved at this turn of events as all he wanted to do at the moment was crawl into bed and die, Blaise disappointed, as they were scheduled to leave Quito at six the next morning. They were to travel via bus to a town on the outskirts of the Amazon jungle. Another thing Draco had been less than thrilled with. Because of the nearness to the Kapok treed jungle, they would not be able to use magical means to travel to Tena. This left the option of public bus.

Blaise might have left the word ‘public’ out in his explanation to Draco.

‘Ops’ he thought


	3. Chapter 2: Tentative about Tena

_ Tena  _ _is the capital of the Napo Province an attractive and quiet city in the Amazon rainforest. Tena is known as the “cinnamon capital" of Ecuador._

_ Cinnamon  _ _was once so highly prized among ancient nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and even for a god: a fine inscription records the gift of cinnamon and cassia to the temple of[Apollo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo) at [Miletus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miletus)_

**Jan 2, 2002: Day 2 (Quito to Tena)**

This confirmed it; Voldmort was entirely correct on his assessment of muggles. They truly where not right in the head. Voldmort had said they were like animals, but the past 4 and ½ hours on this hot, sticky, disgusting contraption had settled it. Stupid Bloody Potter.

Draco was not entirely sure how this was Potter’s fault but he knew it was. After all, everything that had ever gone wrong in his life was Potter’s fault. Draco made another attempt to wipe of the perspiration that was currently slicking his normally perfectly styled hair, to his forehead and glared at the tiny women and chicken beside him. That’s right, a chicken, a bloody chicken. Draco Malfoy, highly esteemed Potion Master, Head of the Malfoy house (which might not carry the same weight it once had, still carried SOME esteem), was sitting next to a chicken, not to mention the questionable contents of the basket at his feet.

He had tried to tell the little woman, many hours ago why the chicken should not be allowed to sit near him but all of his protests had been met by a patient, if condescending smile and the words, “ No, nosentarse.”( _No no sit)_ There might have been something about “Gringo tonto,” (silly gringo) in there as well, but Draco could not be sure. He had at the time been much too caught up on the fact that the muggle had the nerve to look superior, of all things! Blaise’s patronizing roll of his eyes and motion for Draco sit and shut-up, hadn’t done anything to improve his humor.

Draco continued to glare out of the mungy bus windows and try to ignore the increasing ache in his behind from being jostled up and down on rather hard, uncomfortable seat for the past few hours. He had to take his mind off of his discomfort, if there was any chance of him surviving this hellish trip without Aveda Kadavering someone. Potter. That would do it. Whenever Draco truly wanted a distraction, he could always trust the subject of Potter and his mysterious disappearance to do the trick.

In all honesty Draco was still a little pissed off about the whole thing. What bloody right did Potter have to just bloody disappear? He had been the one constant in Draco’s life back then, no matter what was happening he could always count on Potter. All through the nightmare that was Voldmort, being forced to take the mark, having to try and kill Dumbledore to save his mother…failing to kill Dumbledore and subsequent torture, Potter had been there. He could always count on picking a fight with his scrawny, bespectacled, childhood nemesis. He could always count on Potter to do what was necessary, the right/moral thing.

And then he was gone. Vanished, no more. He never gave Draco a chance to apologize, there was never a chance to punch him for his stupidity in saving a potential enemy (aka Draco + fire), proving once again he was an idiotic, noble, self-sacrificing fool. There was never a chance to be forgiven.

It had taken two years for Draco to come to realize just how much this mattered to him. It had taken an additional six months for him to realize that he, Draco Malfoy, just might be a tiny bit in love with Harry Bloody Potter. And the moron hadn’t been around to tell. The nerve.

Draco sighed and shook his head, maybe making a mental list of his current discomforts would be wiser, at least he knew those aches would eventually go away. Thankfully, Draco was jolted from these thoughts when he felt the bus come to a stuttering, jerky stop. All while spewing what had to be toxic fumes into the air. They had arrived.

Blaise had been on and on, all through breakfast, (which Draco had to admit was actually fairly tasty, consisting of a large selection of fresh fruit, scrambled eggs and tortilla. Although Draco would deny unto death that he had enjoyed being able to eat using his hands) about Tena and its culture. Draco had wanted to interrupt his history lesson on cinnamon (of all things!) and the popularity of missionaries in the area, to ask why any of this mattered. As far as he was aware they were spending only one day in the jungle adjacent city. He hadn’t of course, as this would have resulted in a dress down from Blaise about ‘being more adventurous, getting to know the culture…blah, blah, blah”

So, he was a tad surprised when he was met with an actually rather bustling city, rather than the dingy little town he had in mind. Tena turned out to be quite a popular take off point for many shorter, and likely less strenuous Amazon river tours, among other touristy adventure packages. Because of this there was not a lot of museums, art displays or fine dining available for Draco and Blaise to spend the remainder of their day.

Instead they whiled the remaining day light hours walking through the busy streets, Blaise pointing excitedly at every blasted mototaxi that sputtered by, or going into passions about the bloody statue of someone called ‘jumungble….well something like that. While Draco took care to counter his hyperactive excitement with well placed complaints about the heat, pollution from said mototaxi’s and his irritation over their earlier transport.

Blaise well used to Draco’s form of engagement easily dismissed his griping, simply smiling harder at every complaint. This was how their friendship worked, Draco whined, Blaise became more enthusiastic. It worked for them.

After a hour long perusal of the pop-up market located near the bus station, which while filled with everything one could imagine, which resulted in no purchases on either of their parts (they were about to go on a 14 week backpacking trip, neither wanted to carry extra), they decided on supper.

After yet another argument between them, which Draco won, they ended up at an Italian restaurant called ‘Pizzeria La Massilia.**’ Blaise had argued they were in Ecuador and should be eating Ecuadorian cuisine, Draco had argued they would be eating such cuisine for the next three months they should get pizza while they still could.

“Follow me please” the hostess directed, another reason Draco knew he was right. The staff in this restaurant all spoke English. While Draco could manage passable Spanish it was not nearly good enough to interpret the rapid fire Spanish used by the locals.

Once both Draco and a rather sullen looking Blaise where seated and given menus to peruse, they began to discuss the plans for the upcoming day.

“I received a letter by parakeet this morning while you were still sleeping…” Blaise began.

“Parakeet?” Draco asked raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, apparently the South American wizards use them to deliver their mail, suppose it makes sense. Might look a little suspicious if owls were flying everywhere suddenly..”Blaise explained. While there were owls in Ecuador they were a lot less common then their colorful counterparts.

“Anyway, the guide I was telling you about, Juan?” Blaise paused to see if Draco was following him and not still pondering the oddities of South American wizards, when Draco nodded his acknowledgment Blaise continued. “ Well apparently the bloke who had agreed to act as our guide can no longer do so, his family lost their home due to flooding or something” Blaise waved his hand in dismissal, indicating that the reason why he couldn’t, was much less important than the actual fact.

“What!?” Draco asked his voice rising to non-public approved levels. “So what? We’re on our own?”

“Oh. Calm down Draco and stop making a spectacle” Blaise admonished glaring at his upset friend, “No of course not, I doubt either of us could be expected to survive a day on our own…No some friend of Juan’s has agreed to step in. Apparently he is really hard to get as a guide, other commitments or something. Jaun says he’s really good, I think he’s actually an Englishman….don’t think Jaun ever mentioned his name though…” Blaise shrugged at this after thought.

“Oh…well fine. As long as he doesn’t end up getting us lost or fed to a rabid jaguar or something” Draco reluctantly granted.

“Well I’m sure you could simply give the jaguar one of your patent ‘I’m Draco Malfoy, don’t fuck with me glares’ and it would scamper” Blaise teased with a grin. He was rewarded for his efforts with said glare.

A waiter interrupted their conversation to take their order. After both of them argued on what toppings they actually wanted on their pizza, they gave her their order.

“Very good…it will be out momentarily. Excuse me for saying so but the two of you make a very cute couple” Maria (according to the name tag she was wearing) cooed.

“Wha…bu… no we are not together, just friends” Draco sputtered turning slightly red.

“Oh sorry, you just seem so….um never mind, my apologies. I will bring you some more water, no?” Maria stumbled through an apology. Blaise looked amused, Draco glared, Maria scampered.

It is true they had been on again-off again, at one time. But not since their school years, after a few epic fights they discovered they worked much better as friends.

‘So, when are we supposed to meet this Juan and where” Draco finally asked after working through his embarrassment. While Draco had long since stopped following his father’s advice, he still had to work at times to remember his father no longer held any power over him. His father had always been decidedly against Draco dating another man, in large parts due to his expectation of Draco continuing the Malfoy name. When Draco and Blaise had slept together in school it had always been with the outmost discretion. It still caused Draco some angst at being ‘outed’ in a public setting.

Blaise made no comment on Draco’s embarrassment, he more than understood his friend’s lingering insecurities. “We are to meet him at the bus terminal in the afternoon, he is going to take us to a hotel near our take off point, I believe we are meeting the other guide the next morning right before we actually leave.” Blaise explained.

“Thank-god it’s in the afternoon this time, seriously 6am? To catch a bloody bus. It was inhumane” Draco grumbled. Blaise hid his smile happy to see Draco’s mood rise enough that he was whining once more.

Maybe this trip would do Draco some good. Maybe it would do them both some good…..

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**Jan 3, 2002: Day 3**

**(Tena to near take off point on Napo River)**

Draco studied the man making his way through the crowded bus stop. He didn’t strike Draco as someone who would be able to fend off the vicious pythons, he KNEW where waiting for him in that inferno of greenery.

Juan appeared to be in his late twenties-early thirties, he was relatively short and stocky, not fat by any means, just solidly built. Someone who looked like they made their living lifting really, really heavy boulders. If it hadn’t been for the intensely cheerful smile on the man’s face, Draco might have been more nervous about the size of his forearms.

Juan sported the prevalent Ecuadorian skin tone, dark with ahead of thick, cropped, black hair. His loose fitting beige tee-shirt and black khaki’s looked well worn.

“¡Saludos!¿cómo estáshoy?” ( _Greetings! how are you today?)_ Jaun greeted his voice full of cheer.

Blaise of course grasped the proffered hand and beamed at their guide, “noespañol” ( _No Spanish)_ Blaise said shrugging apologetically. If they had too they would continue with Spanish, but neither men were proficient at it.

“Ah…no problem, my apologies. How are you, you are well? You are Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy, yes?” Juan asked not offended.

“Yes, you must be Juan Cortez?” Blaise replied nodding that they were indeed who the man thought.

“Yes, yes… It is a pleasure to meet you…I hope we can get along….if not, it may be a very long trip, no?” Juan said easily, smiling at the ridiculous thought that they would be anything but the best of friends at the end of their trip.

Draco for one did not share his sediments, but he did not dare to say so…they were going to have to trust their lives to this man after all, it was probably best not to start off insulting the man. “Yes, I suppose” he answered somewhat stiffly.

“Ah, yes I can tell you are one of those very serious people. No worry we will loosen you up” Juan stated, pulling a face at the word serious before punching Draco’s arm, in what he likely thought was a light manner.

Draco let out a strangled squawk at the man’s impertinence and was about to tell him just what Draco’s opinion of HIM was, when Blaise smoothly cut him off, likely sensing what Draco was about to start. “Greet, so how far is the place we are lodging tonight?” He asked his tone cheerful, whether fakely so or not, Draco could not guess.

“Ah yes, come this way, follow me. I am driving us there. Roads are not so great so best hold on. It’s not so far, 2-3 hours at most” Jaun stated grasping both men lightly by the elbows and pulling them in the direction he wanted to go. Draco had read in his guide book that South American cultures operated much more on touch, but really! Did the man have to be so grabby?

Huffing quietly he followed the man to a battered looking, open aired jeep. Juan did not wait for permission just grabbed both of their bags (including the one slung on Blaise’s back) and tossed them in the back of the jeep. As if they weighed nothing at all. Draco scowled but got obediently into the backseats of the jeep, bloody hell he hated muggle inventions. It was sooo much more comfortable to apperate.

He resolutely ignored the chatter between Blaise and Juan, floating back from the front seat in favor of watching the landscape bounce by. The road they were on was definitely not paved or smooth.

An indeterminate amount of time later they pulled up to a relatively large but nice looking lodge. Juan informed them it was made of bengkirai wood, whatever it was… it looked similar to the huts Draco had seen as a child when he stole Narcissi’s Bali travel magazine. Little did he know then she was looking for a property to that she could take Draco and run away too it. Of course that had never transpired so it mattered little now.

The lodge had a wrap around veranda and hammocks could be seen hanging at random intervals. Behind it, Draco could just make out smaller versions of the lodge, likely the different guest houses. The entire area was surrounded by huge, large leafed trees, their bases strangled in other green plants and vines. The chattering of various birds was almost deafening.

“Come, come….We will get you both checked in, and then I will leave you. I will come back tomorrow to get you, sound good yes?” Juan asked, nimbly jumping from the jeep, as if he had not spent the last several hours have his bones rattled by every bump known to man.

Both Draco and Blaise climbed somewhat more stiffly from the jeep, attempting to brush off the dust from the journey as they stood. “That sounds good” Blaise answered.

“Is the other guide coming with you tomorrow?” Blaise asked as they made their way up the a few steps to the wooden deck.

“Ah. Yes. It was very lucky indeed. He is usually much further away; it was just by chance that he was already in Tena to pick up medical supplies. He normally resides closer to where we will be travelling, near the Madre de Dios Region. Only ventures this way once or twice a year. Very lucky” Juan answered pushing the bamboo curtains out of the way and entering the lodge.

Draco briefly wondered what Juan would have done if this mysterious friend of his hadn’t been in the area. Would their entire expedition been cancelled? Draco was not sure if this would have been a positive or negative.

“That is extremely lucky for us. What is his name? Have you worked with him before?” Blaise asked curiously.

“Yes I have, another group I took, one of the girls ended up getting malaria part way through and he happened to be bartering with the local tribe we were near. He literally saved her life by taking her back. If I had tried to take her with the rest of the group, we would have travelled much too slow. It was most fortunate that Hadrian was there” Juan explained while handing the slip of their pre-arranged reservations to the girl behind the check in counter.

“I-Is it common for trekkers to become ill or injured while in the jungle? And you said his name was Hadrian? Does he have a last name?” Blaise asked sounding slightly worried, most likely picturing his untimely demise from some rare tropical disease.

“Ah, yes it is fairly common, especially on these longer treks. You foreigner’s immune systems are not used to the environment, that and you tend to do stupid things” Juan added the last with a grin before continuing, “But no worries, we will take good care of you, and yes his name is Hadrian…but you know I don’t think I know his last name…huh guess it never came up. Don’t worry though he is good.”

Neither Blaise nor Draco looked overly reassured by this.

“Ah, here are your keys; it is the first hut you come to on the left. I will be back tomorrow morning, you should be packed and waiting for me here no later than 5:30am. Yes?” Jaun instructed handing over two metal keys.

Draco was really getting irritated with how the man ended every statement with a bloody question, not to mention it was just cruel to expect them to be ready that early.

“Yes. I guess we will see you tomorrow then, Draco are you coming?” Blaise agreed, as Juan smiled and waved his good bye.

Draco glared at the receding back of their tour guide.

Merlin he hoped this Hadrian was not nearly so irritating


	4. Chapter 3: Rocky Revelations

                **Chapter 3: Rocky Revelations**

_ Revelation: _ _a surprising and previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way._

**January, 4: Day 4 (Take off point on Napo river, Ecuador)**

**5:30am**

Juan whistled cheerfully to himself as he made his way over to the main lodge, he had decided to take the owner and long time friend up on her offer and bunk in one of the spare staff beds for the evening. ‘Or perhaps not so spare’, he thought smiling slyly to himself. There was a reason he had told Hadrian he would pick up the gringos yesterday after all….Luciana was definitely a good reason.

Juan climbed up to the covered veranda, spotting the grouchy blond’s rather tell tale hair inside. ‘Well at least they can follow directions’ he thought to himself. It was the common mistake of these Englishmen, who were quick to mistake his cheerful exuberance as naïve ignorance. He was well aware that they had immediately looked down on him, seeing his tanned skin and hearing his Spanish accent, so to amuse himself he used mannerisms, that where as much to disarm and fool, as they were to irritate. A method that had worked quite well in accords to the blond.

He spotted the familiar dirt bike ripping into the dirt parking lot of the lodge and bit back a smile, ‘Ah speak of the devil….Hadrian, late as usual.’ Instead of being irritated at his fellow guide, Juan could not help but smile indulgently at the dust covered figure.

Hadrian was one of the few Englishmen Juan actually liked. He had come to respect the man for his intense obsession with anything jungle related. The man was a bottomless pit, when it came to learning more and soaked up whatever knowledge, regardless of its source, like a sponge. Not to mention he was dead useful in a tight spot and had reflexes rivaled to none other, well at least no one Juan had ever met. Plus, the man was just pleasant to be around.

Hadrian had appeared in the guide circuit literally out of nowhere, four years ago. The gregarious but surprisingly introspective Englishmen, stated that he had spent the last year with the infamously reclusive, Machiguenga tribe and had stated, point blankly to those who had insisted on fishing for information to ‘mind their own god damn business.’

They had been instant friends. Chuckling lowly under his breath, Juan ducked his head inside the lodge and gave a sharp whistle to grab Blaise and Draco’s attention. He grinned inwardly as he saw Draco glare at the summoning.

“Ah, good morning! Come. Hadrian has just arrived, you might as well come outside since that is where we will end up anyway” Juan stated a huge smile plastered to his face.

Draco glared, but stooped to pick up his bag muttering under his breath the entire time, Blaise grinned back and practically bounced out of lodge. ‘Perhaps this Blaise would not be so bad’ Juan thought moving out of the way for the cheerful man.

Hadrian was swinging his lithe frame off of the dirt encrusted bike, making an effort to dust some of the dust from his dark green, loose fitting, V neck shirt, and khaki shorts. The helmet he removed revealed slightly ruffled long raven hair secured loosely to hang down his back.

Juan skipped down the steps, ignoring the two foreigners for a moment, as he rushed to great his friend with a tight hug, “Hadrian! It’s been far too long!” He pulled back and did a quick sweep of his friend; noting the sun tanned skin, easy smile and mirthful green eyes. ‘Good he looks well rested for once’ he thought to himself

“Ah my good friend, I told you, you’d miss me!” Hadrian replied teasingly, giving the shorter man an impish grin.

“Psh…It is a good thing you chose to go back to your tribe, I am not sure I could put up with you on a regular basis” Juan laughed good naturedly, ducking the playful swing sent his way. “Thank you for agreeing to do this. I suppose I should introduce you to the rest of our group, no?” Juan turned, leading Hadrian back to where Blaise and Draco were hanging back.

“Hadrian, these gentlemen are Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, gentle…”Juan’s introductions were cut off by a choking sound that sounded like it was coming from both groups. He looked up to see identical wide eyed, disbelieving looks on all three men’s faces.

“Potter?!” the blond choked out, staring raptly at Hadrian. Hadrian for his part was white as a ghost and had his mouth opening and closing reminiscent of a fish. “Where the fuck have you been!” Draco yelled, his face going from disbelief to anger.

“Oh fuck” was all Hadrian got out.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

“Oh Fuck” Hadrian managed to get out; as he looked at the last person in the world he thought he would be seeing.

Truly, sometimes he hated whatever cosmic force enjoyed screwing with his life. He swallowed; well he might as well get this over with, not like postponing was going to do any good.

“Um…hi?” Hadrian asked, taking a step back just as a precaution.

“Hi?! ….Hi?!! That is what you have to say after five bloody years? Hi?... You are a fucking retard! Do you know how many people wasted oh, I don’t know, countless hours looking for your sorry ass?” Draco raged looking like he wished more than anything to punch Hadrian in the face. Blaise for his part just stared impassively, a blank, hard to read expression on his face. While Juan just looked confused.

“Well it appears you’ve found me” Hadrian muttered under his breath. Draco due to his ranting missed this comment.

“Everyone thinks you’re dead! You didn’t think you could spare anyone some common courtesy and drop them a note telling them that, you hadn’t been turned into tiny invisible particles by the Dark Lord’s wand?” Draco continued his voice finally falling to normal decibel level, though now it just sounded that much more threatening.

“Er…Sorry?” Hadrian tried again to cut the imploding Blond off.

“You’re sorry? Your god damn sorry?” Draco asked sounding incredulous, “Well fuck you Potter, you selfish prick” he spat.

Hadrian who was growing more and more confused by the blonde’s irate speech felt his own anger surge to the surface. Why should Draco give a damn whether or not he disappeared? He had made sure to have his lawyer (who was bound by an oath of confidentiality) submit documents, proving Draco and his mother’s forced participation to Voldmort. It’s not like Harry disappearing had an effect on Draco’s life, what right did he have to be upset?

“Selfish? You want to talk to me about being selfish? Well fuck you. I think I have more than earned the right to a little selfishness don’t you? I up everything for Britain’s war, absolutely everything. All to a country whose people preferred to treat me as their resident scapegoat and punching bag instead of a teenage boy. Hell, I was a bloody sacrifice for those ignorant sheep! So yes, Malfoy, when the spell Voldmort used backfired and I woke up in the middle of a god damn jungle, I saw an opportunity to disappear and I did. Who do you think you are to judge me?” Hadrian yelled right back.

“There were people who still cared, you could have at least let them know you were okay” Draco spat in retort.

“So, what? So that they could track me down and drag me back, all in order for me to full-fill my obligations? Everyone I owed something to is dead, Draco... Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Sirius, Dumbledore…all of them dead! All I had waiting for me back home was the fickle adoration of the public, or the condemnation from the ministry. Do you really thing the Minstery would have left me alone. An ‘unstable, emotionally disturbed’ wizard with inconceivable amounts of power? So, excuse me for doing something for myself for once in my life” Hadrian ended his rant quietly, his eyes shining with pain.

Draco didn’t say anything, caught between yelling again and looking abashed.

Blaise cleared his throat awkwardly, “So…good to see you again, Potter…can we get on with this? Or are you two going to throw punches first?”

Hadrian shook his head as if to clear out the suddenly surfaced emotions and forced a strained smile, “No, I can restrain myself if Malfoy can…”

Malfoy gave a stiff nod of his head. Juan coughed awkwardly before plastering a huge smile to his face and rubbing his hands together….

“Oh this is going to be great! It will be a trip to remember no?”


	5. Chapter 4: Tension on the Tributary

** Chapter 4: Tension on the Tributary **

_The Napo is a_ [ _tributary_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tributary) _to the_ [ _Amazon River_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River) _that rises in_ [ _Ecuador_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador) _on the flanks of the_ [ _volcanoes_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcano) _of_ [ _Antisana_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisana) _, Sinchulawa and_ [ _Cotopaxi_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotopaxi) _._ _A tributary is a freshwater stream that feeds into a larger stream or river._ _Tributaries to the Amazon flow through undeveloped regions of the Andes Mountains and rain forests in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, this is one reason the Amazon is less polluted then many other larger, tributary fed rivers._

**January 5, Day: 5, 71km from starting point on Napo River**

**10am**

Draco friggen hated his life….okay so that is an exaggeration;

Draco friggen hated his life RIGHT now. He was not even sure who he could blame for it. Okay, so that is another lie; there were plenty of people he could blame:

First off he could blame Blaise. For it was his bloody fault, that…1) Draco’s arms currently felt as if they were going to fall off, 2) he was drenched from head to toe in his own sweat, 3) his neck and any uncovered piece of skin felt like it had been placed in Fiendfyre, and 4) what skin was not burnt, was itching, because the Amazon was apparently a breeding ground for every biting insect known to mankind. Furthermore it was his fault, that Draco was now forced to look at the annoyingly delectable backside of Harry bloody Potter.

This brought up the second person whom he really despised at the moment. The stupid, no longer bespectacled git (where the hell, in this god forsaken hole, did Potter find someone to correct his vision? He shouldn’t be surprised after all, it was freaking Potter). The insufferable git had the nerve to just bloody disappear from Draco’s life, and then act like it was no big deal. Sure, at the time he had never exchanged a cordial sentence with Potter, but still. He was suppose to be the savior, surely he could have read Draco’s mind and REALIZED. Annoying, that’s what it was. Another thing…how come Potter couldn’t have disappeared and became fat, lazy and horrendous looking. It would have made Draco’s slightly unhealthy obsession, easier to get over. But no, being Potter, the stupid ass had to show up looking like sex-on-a-stick. And now he had the nerve to sound all chipper, and guideish, all while ignoring Draco’s taunts and pissy mood!

Then there was Juan. Draco swore the irritating guide had it out for him. He was all ‘happy as a lark’ smile here, ever-so- helpful there…everyone else might be fooled. But not him… Draco recognized the act for what it was; he was sure the Ecuadorian local was hiding intentions of pure evil. “Oh Draco, you really should have remembered to apply sunscreen…..oh Draco, you probably shouldn’t drink that water”….yup. Evil.

The fourth thing to draw his ire was the bloody guide book. The guide book that spoke of the ‘natural beauty, amazing plant life and multitudes of endangered animals” as if any of those things was even vaguely worthy of awe. All Draco, knew was that the ‘beautiful, lush greenery’ was starting to make his vision blur; that the ‘warm, lovely climate’ was causing all of his bodily fluids to leave the vicinity; that the lovely endangered animals, were waiting to eat him slowly and painfully. Stupid ruddy book.

But most of all however, Draco was hating himself. Why could he not have gotten over this ridiculous crush? What was it about Potter that made his heart pound, his bloody rush (to rather embarrassing locations), and his mouth dry? What was it about the man. that made Draco snap and just want to pound the living day lights out of that unfairly attractive face? He hated this. Hated him. Hated himself. He was a respected Potions Master, why did Potter make him feel like he was back in 6th year, afraid and unsure of himself.

It really wasn’t fair.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Blaise hated his life. Well at the moment anyhow.

He had tried to continue being positive, for Draco’s sake. He knew that his friend had been irritated by his exuberance and cheerfulness, but what is friend didn’t realize was just how forced this behavior had been.

Blaise had spent the last several days, pretending. He wasn’t sure who he was pretending for, he told himself it was for Draco’s sake, but if he was being honest with himself, it was more for his own. Yes, this trip was exciting, a chance of a lifetime. What Draco didn’t realize it was also an escape. And more than just an escape, it was Blaise’s last chance.

Draco wasn’t aware of it, but for the last nine months Blaise had been keeping a secret from his best friend. Well, one more secret. Blaise’s life was falling apart, it had been since the moment that his wife, Kimberley had handed him the divorce papers. The papers that informed him that she was severing her life from his, and oh, by the way….taking him for every penny he was worth.

He hadn’t told Draco, he was too embarrassed. Draco had warned him about Kimberley, but well Blaise hadn’t listened. The war had just ended, everything was in chaos. Everyone was celebrating, well mostly everyone. Except for those who really understood. Those, who understood that HE was gone and not coming back. Blaise was one of those, so he had thrown himself at the first opportunity he came across. Kimberley had been funny, sweet, refreshing, she had been the anchor he needed at that point. Unfortunately, he had been too on these positive traits and missed the vindictive, greedy, opportunistic side of his now ex-wife.

He had spent the last 9 months struggling to stay sane, to keep positive, to listen and fight lawyers. In the end it had strained his performance at work. He had managed to keep up the façade of normalcy with some of his projects (mainly the ones with Draco), but the rest had suffered. Six months ago, his boss had approached him and offered him one last opportunity to save his job.

So, here he was. Wearily, pulling the ruddy canoe onto the bank for a short rest. Harry and Jaun had turned out be slave drivers. He had been forced to listen to Draco whine piteously about their 5:30am wake up call, followed by four hours of continuous paddling, a short 30min morning break to stuff down some tasteless food, followed by another three hours of paddling, an hour lunch break, 3 MORE hours of paddling, another 30min afternoon break and a final two hours of back breaking work, before calling it quits and watching their guides set up a camp and cook a simple meal, only to be allowed to fall into bed once it was well cleaned up. According to Juan if it wasn’t properly cleaned they would only serve as even more enticing prey to the many carnivorous beasts in their new environment.

Blaise was feeling many things. At the moment he was filled with bitterness, resentment and uncertainty. The later two were mainly directed at Harry, or apparently now Hadrian. He had never gotten past his sudden disappearance, not that anyone knew this…hence the resentment to find that he had been alive and well all this time. The uncertainty was the thing that was at the forefront however, he didn’t know how to act around him. Draco didn’t know, and so far Harry seemed to be pretending not to, so Blaise was left waffling.

The bitterness was all encompassing, at the moment it was directed at Draco. It was just unfair. His best friend was supposed to be the one that you vented to, who eased your worries. But in this case, Draco could not serve that role. Draco had the freedom of venting his own ire and confusion over the savior to Blaise, but Blaise was left to deal with it all on his own.

He sighed, allowing the smile to slip from his face, when he was sure no one was paying attention. What should he do? What course of action would bring the least destruction? He stared at the fried plantain he was eating and sighed again. He just didn’t know.

It really wasn’t fair.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh………………………………………………………………..

Hadrian hated his life. This could be stated as true for the first eighteen years of it, and now it was once again true.

It seemed that the past four years he had spent content with his new lot in life, was all that fate was going to allow him. True they had been far from perfect, and following his discovery, his whole life was hit and shattered from what it had once been. He had been devastated when he found that he really could NOT go back home, even if he had wanted to.

Not that he had necessarily wanted to, what he had told Draco and Co., was not a lie. He truly didn’t have a lot to go back too. So many of his loved one’s had died. Yes, it was true that not all of them had, but enough.

Those left behind were just reminders of those that were gone. The Weasley’s, who he had always considered family, were now two members short. Fred and Ron, where no longer at Sunday suppers, or unwrapping ugly knit sweaters on Christmas. He knew that Molly, and the rest, would tell him that it wasn’t his fault. But he also knew that their eyes wouldn’t be able to lie. They would know, he would know. Too much had happened.

Then there was Ginny. How was he supposed to go and tell her that he couldn’t, no, didn’t want to be with her anymore? He knew he had promised that they would be together after the war. He knew she had lost two of her brothers and was counting on him to stop her from falling apart. But how could he, when he could barely manage to keep himself together? He also knew that was just an excuse. An excuse for what he had discovered in sixth year. He could not lie to himself when it was all over and done with.

Then there was the Ministry. He had no doubt that had he survived and still resided in England that, they would seek to control him. They had allowed Albus his freedom to a degree, simply because those were different times, and then it was too late to establish a leash. But he knew they would not make that mistake again. The majority of the ministry, were still left over from Fudge’s reign, and most still believed that he was a mentally unstable, a danger. He wouldn’t have been able to hide the immense power that now resided inside him. The power, which had taken his choices away from him.

He had only one option, to stay. To continue taking the concoction that was keeping this power from overwhelming him. It had been purely chance, that Voldmort’s spell had backfired and sent him to the one place on Earth that knew and understood the need for this mix. He had woken up, all those years ago confused, his memory jostled, surrounded by scantily clad people who did not speak or understand English. He had been terrified.

His memory had continued to elude him for 3 months. For those three months, the tribal members had allowed him to stay, to heal, and to learn. When his memories did come back he was left to deal with the grief, guilt and pain that it brought with it. He continued to stay with the tribe; they had become a stabilizer for him, something he could trust…so, he stayed. He had never had the intention of staying forever.

No, originally he had planned to live with them, and learn what he could for a year. Then go back to the mess he had left behind. It was in his eighth month, that he had discovered yet another thing that would change his life.

It had happened while he was out hunting with a few of the men. He happened to have an aptitude for such things, given his quick reflexes and determination. He could thank Voldmort for that he supposed. It was on this trip that his magic had started to go haywire; it had blasted out of him in surges, destroying a magnificent bunch of trees, shortly after, he had collapsed. He woke up 2 weeks later to be informed by a mediwitch (whom the tribal head had called from Huancayo, that his magic had received an enormous boost when Voldmort had died, transferred through the cursed scar. It had almost doubled his magical core, and in the process destabilized it.

She stated that without treatment, it would continue to deteriorate and eventually blow him and most likely half of London up. Just has Harry had begun to truly panic, she had interrupted him and told him that there was a treatment, an ingestion of a brew that a neighboring tribe had concocted for their own cores (which tended to destabilize because to the blocking affect of the Kapok trees). It needed to be ingested every other day, and it needed to be fresh. The key ingredient needed to the brew it, was a carnivorous vine that only grew in the Amazon.

That news officially ended any thoughts of returning home. Hadrian had decided to set up a life here, all while continuing to search for a cure that would allow him more mobility, outside the jungle. The last several months he and Serine (the mediwitch who met with him monthly) had found several promising alternative plants that had given him hope.

In fact, that had been one of his reasons to travelling to Tena, when Juan had contacted him. Serine had stated that a Healer from China was planning on staying for the month of January, and had brought several interesting animal extracts that might help intensify the potency of their last concoction. Hadrian had needed to pick up more supplies for the tribe anyway and figured a meeting could not hurt. He had accepted Juan’s plea for him to serve as a tour guide, simply because he had needed the money. He of course still had his vaults in Gringotts, but as he was trying to lay low, it might look a tad suspicious if someone was making withdraws.

And now…now he was face to face with two ghosts from his past. He did not know what to say to them, how to react, what to expect. It had been 5 years, he had changed, it only made sense that they would change as well.

But how much? Had Draco changed from the irritating prat he had once been? Could he trust the blond not to immediately run to the press upon their return and notify them of his location. He could not deal with that. He needed to focus, not look over his shoulder constantly. His paranoia had finally begun to recede, well before this latest surprise, anyway.

Then there was Blaise. He wasn’t sure what to make of the handsome, aristocrat. What happened between them seemed so long ago. It had been during the time when Hadrian was still confused as to whom he was, what he liked. At that point in his life, he hadn’t truly believed he would live past twenty. He was pretty sure they had been clear with each other, understood what it meant. But seeing Blaise’s face again… he was no longer so sure.

He truly hated the circumstances that always seemed to push and pull at any order he managed to establish in his life. He hated the expectations, the uncertainty. He hated not knowing what to expect. Most of all he hated the fear.

He sighed to himself as he carefully climbed into the canoe ahead of Draco; they were travelling by two canoes; two riders a piece. He was sure that Juan had stuck him with Draco on purpose. He ignored Draco’s irritable slap at some bug and started to shift the water back with the oar.

It really wasn’t fair.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…………………………………

Juan loved his life. Really, things could not be going any better.

He was surrounded by the jungle he loved, the sun was shining (then again it rarely wasn’t…unless you counted the days where it was pouring), he was once again with his amigo, Hadrian, and he had all sorts of entertainment.

The entertainment being his three companions, who were all strung out on tension and barely speaking. Oh, the joy.

Well, while the tension was amusing in its own way. It would not do. He was not all that worried though; he recognized this type of tension. It was the same tension that existed when his five year old nephew pulled his school mates piggy tale, all with the hopes of gaining her attention. Yes, it was that kind of tension.

So, Juan watched and waited, and plotted. The best way to relieve tension was to fix the cause.

Oh he did love this jungle.

It would be for the best. They would understand…..eventually


	6. Chapter 5: Navigating Napo River

** Chapter 5: Navigating Napo River **

_Napo River: Explored by the Spanish soldier and Amazon explorer Francisco de Orellana in 1540 and then by the Portuguese Amazon explorer Pedro Teixiera in 1638, the river, 550 miles (885 km) long, is an important transportation artery, for much of it is navigable_

**January 7, Day: 7, 188 km from starting point on Napo River**

**3:30pm**

The last two days had been hell. There was no other way to put it, pure hell. Blaise had known as soon as his boss had told him that this was a magic-free exhibition that it wasn’t going to be all rainbows and ice cream… but there was no way that he was prepared for THIS.

For one thing he was exhausted, the pure physical toil of trekking or he guessed, paddling through a unpredictable, constantly changing river surrounded by nearly impenetrable trees ( both which served as home to a vast number of questionable beasts) was unthinkable. Blaise had always thought he was in pretty decent physical shape, especially compared to some wizards his age but after a few hours of paddling this damn canoe he was beginning to think rethink this assumption. Even more irritating was the fact that Harry…no, Hadrian (he really had to start calling him his chosen name… old habits die hard) made it look like no effort at all.

While Blaise was pretty sure he could catalog and label every single one of his muscles simply from the different pains and aches in them, Harry didn’t seem to think that paddling a boat for twelve hours a day was NOT NORMAL. Then again, maybe this was normal for him, after all Blaise reasoned he really did not know the dark haired man anymore.

The second thing beyond the pure physical pain that was contributing to make this trip even more painful than it already was turning out to be was Draco. Blaise could honestly not recall another time when he had so wanted to strangle his friend. Sure Blaise was every bit as angry and confused over who their guide had turned out to be, but at least he could angst silently!

Draco did not do silent, well at least he did not do it comfortably. Draco had spent the better part of the past 50 some hours; complaining about his discomfort, whining about the unfairness of his involvement in this trip, muttering darkly under his breath, directing underhand insults towards both of their guides (for some reason Blaise did not understand Draco had taken an immense dislike towards Juan), or when he did bless him with his silence it was brooding and sullen. And while normally Blaise was quite used to his friends self centered behavior, something about being stuck in the middle of a bug invested, infernal sauna did not lend itself to patience.

“How is everyone doing? We are making pretty good distance today….another hour and we can stop for afternoon tea” Hadrian called back from his and Draco’s canoe. They had been in the lead all day, though Blaise seriously doubted that it was by Draco’s involvement.

“Oh HOW lovely….just what I want right now…afternoon tea” Draco sneered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Tell me... is it actually going to involve tea this time or just more of that inedible swill you’ve provided us with these last few days. Seriously, how you can call yourself a guiding company…” he trailed off, both his expression and tone making it abundantly clear just what he thought of this tour.

Blaise bit back an exasperated sigh as he saw Hadrian’s jaw clench with anger or frustration, he couldn’t be sure. “I’m so sorry your highness…but you are the one that decided he needed to venture to the heart of a basically inhabitable environment to collect potions ingredients. I would have thought that a small sacrifice on creature comforts would have been rather obvious” Hadrian ground out.

They had been sniping back and forth all day; neither of them was seemingly ready to give up on their old animosity.

Draco muttered something under his breath that Blaise did not quite catch but judging by how forcefully Hadrian entered his paddle into the water it was not complementary. The next hour went by in tense silence, well almost silence… Juan was humming some local melody to himself acting oblivious to the interactions going on in the other canoe.

When they finally pulled up to indulge in their ‘tea break’ (in reality it was more of a dried bean and salted water break) the silence was so strained that Blaise thought he could literally cut it with a knife.

Apparently the silence got too much for Draco as well because he broke it with a snort and snide comment, “I can’t believe that you would run away to here of all places. Seriously Potter, I knew that you were uncultured by the way the despicable company you kept back in school but even I thought you could do better than a swamp full of uncouth primates”

Blaise knew the moment that the words left Draco’s mouth that he had gone too far this time. While Potter had without question changed since they last saw him he hadn’t changed that much. He still had a hot temper (even if he was better at keeping it in check) and while he seemed to tolerate insults to his own person reasonably well, he had and most likely always would snap when they were directed to those that he held dear.

Even Blaise was wise enough to know that mentioning Hadrian’s deceased, former best friends was going too far. Not to mention the fact that Draco had managed to insult not one but two separate groups of people that Hadrian obviously cared about. It was no secret that Hadrian loved and valued his former friends, but it was also fairly obvious to anyone who cared to open their eyes, that Hadrian now considered both the jungle and those few people who inhabited it, to fall into his protective category.

“Shut your spoiled, uneducated mouth Malfoy. You have no right to mention them; you do not have even an iota of the strength and courage that Ron and Hermione had. I realize that it is too much to hope that you had outgrown your ignorance, but I would have expected you to at least bite your tongue over those you died so that you did not have to kiss the feet of a monster” Hadrian spat, a look of fury on his face “As for those you call ‘uncouth primates,’ without their knowledge and wisdom I very much doubt you would be able to retrieve your precious ingredients… so for once in your life show some respect and shut up!”

Hadrian stood up abruptly before spinning to face Juan and stating, “We are stopping here. Tomorrow is suppose to be a day off so that THEY” Hadrian shot a glare in Draco and Blaise’s direction, (Blaise resented being included in the irate raven hair’s wraith, after all He hadn’t done anything) “Can go hunting for their plants and ingredients.”

“Can we afford to skip the last few hours today? You know that we are on a tight schedule Hadrian…” Juan said hesitantly, he had dropped his jovial act for once. It appeared that even he knew not to antagonize Hadrian when he was had that look on his face.

“We are going to have to. If I have to sit in the same boat as-as… him” Hadrian settled on a curt nod of his head towards Draco rather then what Blaise imagined he wished to do, “I will kill him.” There was no levity or tone stating that Hadrian was joking with this last statement. “If we really need to make up the distance we will travel for 2 hours tomorrow after they have finished foraging. I need some time to myself….I am going to go patrol the area, see if the Jiker tribe has been in the area, if they are perhaps we can trade and barter. I wouldn’t mind getting another quena* for Neaira…I did not get time to find something in Tena” Hadrian continued, a small smile at the mention of this mysterious Neaira.

While Blaise was glad that the mention of this Neaira was enough to somewhat pull Hadrian out of his dark fury he could not help but feel a curl of jealousy rise up. He shook his head to clear it and viciously suppressed the feeling. ‘What right did he have to be jealous over who Hadrian did and did not get gifts for? He, himself had married for cripe sakes. Even if that marriage was over and had been the biggest mistake of his life…’ he thought bitterly to himself before returning his attention to the conversation.

“Alright, that is reasonable I suppose…plus I do not think we would get paid if you killed half the party” Juan agreed solemnly, though the mirth in his eyes gave him away.

Hadrian rolled his eyes but let a small smile grace his lips, “You are okay to start setting stuff up? I can finish whatever you don’t get to when I return...” Hadrian asked, though his attention was already turned towards the thick mass of trees behind their small clearing.

Juan smiled and waved his concerns away, “go, go…I know how you need your space. You have held up well considering. We will be fine, perhaps I will get Blondie’s assistance” Juan stated winking at Draco before giving Hadrian a light push. Draco started to splutter out a protest but Hadrian did not stick around to listen.

There was a small snapping sound and Hadrian was gone, leaving behind a smug Juan, irritated Draco and astonished Blaise.

‘Well,” Blaise thought to himself staring after the retreating graceful, midnight black-figure, “that’s new.”

Somehow the fact that Hadrian had become an animagus while missing was not all that surprising… neither was his form.

Blaise for one thought that the graceful but ferocious black jaguar more than suited Hadrian Potter.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The cacophony of various birds, insects and unknowns filled the humid, evening air. Draco grumpily pushed aside of sweat induced, lank blond hair. He knew that he shouldn’t have brought up Ron and Hermione, he knew better. He didn’t even hate them anymore, he hadn’t for a long time…even before they had died.

Draco swallowed the sour tasting bile back down and forced the memories to the back recesses of his mind, back where they belonged. Those memories shouldn’t resurface, he couldn’t let them resurface. Draco had never told anyone about these memories…the memories that had turned to nightmares. Not his mother (when she was still sane), not Blaise, not Pansy…and definitely not Hadrian. They all knew parts of them…well probably.

Draco knew that Hadrian at might suspect that he had witnessed Hermione’s death. He couldn’t be sure though, they had never had a chance after to talk about it.

It had been awful. At that point in the war Draco had thought he had seen the worst. He had after all been living in the same house as the infamous Dark Lord. His father had been in the inner circle and Draco at the time had been expected to follow his father’s chosen path.

At the point that Potter and his friends had been captured Draco had long lost the romanticized, childish views of what being a follower of the Dark Lord meant. True he had been sheltered from the worst by his mother and his godfather, but he was not stupid, he understood well enough what went on behind those closed solid oak doors. He had thought he was prepared to witness death. How wrong he had been.

He had felt like his heart was literally being crushed when he watched the snatchers drag in Potter, Granger and Weasley. Sure, Potter had been puffy and nearly unrecognizable at that point but anyone with half a brain knew it was him. He was with the other two thirds of the Golden trio after all. Looking back on that day, Draco knew that he had not been mature enough to recognize his feelings for what they were; all he knew was that Potter could not be there. He could not be there tied and waiting for the Dark Lord.

If he had thought seeing them in the Manner was horrific, it paled in comparison to what he had been made to witness after. He had watched helpless to do anything to help her, as Hermione Granger, the smartest witch in their year, had been tortured to near insanity and then mercilessly executed by his Aunt Bella. While the nightmares had started to recede and diminish with times, when he did have them Granger’s screams still haunted him.

The only saving grace of that time was that Potter and Weasley had managed to rescue the other prisoners in the Malfoy dungeons and escape before Lord Voldemort had arrived. The traumatic way they lost their friend had nearly broken the remaining two from what Draco heard. He would guess that needing to defeat Voldemort was the only thing that had kept Potter from breaking, Ron was not so fortunate. Three weeks following the duo’s escape, Ronald Weasley had taken his own life.

So, yes Draco had definitely crossed a line today. He was not even sure why he had done it. He was just so tired and frustrated with this whole situation. He had grieved and mourned when Hadrian had disappeared all those years ago; he had come to terms with the fact that he was too late to make amends. It was behind him. But seeing Hadrian alive and well, it brought back all those memories, long lost hopes and more importantly the fear and guilt of the war.

So Draco was coping how he always coped. He was externalizing and trivializing. When things had become too much to bare during the war he had focused on minor irritancies. A missed party invitation, an insubordinate house elf; these things Draco could understand, these things he could fix. He could not fix or do anything about watching a classmate being murdered right in front of him. He could not fix or mend his overwhelming fear of that red eyed monster, so he focused on things he could. And this was what he was once again doing. He did not want to revisit his memories of the war, or face a second chance with Potter. He did not know how…so instead he focused on the sweat dripping down his back, the insect biting his sun burnt skin, and picking fights with Har no-Potter.

And now he had made an already stressful situation worse. Great. The bloody irritating man hadn’t even had the decency to come back yet, so now Draco was left to worry about the idiot on top of everything else.

“You know you should apologize right?” a voice startled him out of his revere. Draco cranked his head around to see that Blaise had come up from behind him and settled himself onto the log Draco was currently brooding on.

Draco scowled at the interruption and gave a grunt, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Blaise’s statement.

Blaise sighed before looking resolutely at Draco “Even you are not callous enough to deny that you were in the wrong earlier”

Draco petulantly kicked at a rather dangerous looking fern at his feet before letting his shoulder’s sag and giving in, “I know. I didn’t mean to say that it just…well it just came out. I thought I had gotten past all of this. I thought with everything, that I wouldn’t instantly revert to trying and getting a rise out of him. I don’t know what it is about that bloody Gryffindor… all it takes is one look and he’s under my skin. I don’t know how to interact with him without arguing and fighting”

“Well you are going to have to figure it out. You cannot keep riling him up if any of us are going to make it through this trip, Draco. We are no longer children, we are adults, you need to start acting like it” Blaise stated his tone firm, none of the leniency that he normally reserved for the stubborn blond present.

Draco glared hard at his shoe before looking up to meet Blaise’s violet hued gaze; he knew that what Blaise said was true, he really did not want to continue to fight with Hadrian…no he wanted quite the opposite in fact. Draco rolled his shoulders to relieve some of the tension before voicing his decision “I know, I will apologize when he returns and I will….try…with, well with the rest of it” he shifted uncomfortable with the topic.

Blaise studied him for a moment before letting out one last sigh, “well…that is all I can ask, let’s just hope that he accepts it and that BOTH of you put some effort into getting along”

Draco closed his eyes to hide the yearning he was sure was present; ‘yes he most definitely hoped that this would not be one-sided. Oh how he hoped.’

                               

 

 


	7. Chapter 6: Predators and Prey

** Chapter 6: Predators and Prey  **

_Very little sunlight makes it through the dense canopy of trees and foliage covering the Amazon rainforest. Down on the ground, it is nearly completely dark. In fact, if it started raining, it would take ten minutes before you even got wet_

_Jaguars are the largest and most powerful member of the Amazon cats – top of the food chain and among the largest living cats. This animal is so rare that it is estimated that there are only 200 total in the Amazon Rainforest._

**January 7, Day: 7, 192 km from starting point on Napo River, 8pm**

Hadrian felt the tension slowly draining from his muscles as he stretched them out to leap from his perch to the neighboring tree. The constant noise of the jungle stilled to an almost eerie silence as the smaller creatures of the jungle recognized the presence of a predator. His padded paws, while virtually silent to humans and wizards were a clear warning to the inhabitants of this lush environment.

This was one of the main reason’s Hadrian loved the jungle, it demanded respect. Everywhere else wizards had the comfort of knowing they were the ultimate predator, that they were the ones at the top of the food chain…it was not so here.

While some might argue that in his animagus form, Hadrian was once again near the top of the hierarchy, even deep within the depts of these ancient trees, but he would argue that this was a fallacy. Yes, the jaguar was a feared predator, but there was always something larger, more powerful, more dangerous hidden within the shadows. This danger both allowed him to relax and yet stay aware of his surroundings. It kept him striving; sharpening and honing his instincts and abilities. Hadrian knew that had he ended up in a place where peace was the normality, he would have withered and died from complacency.

He had spent his formative years in a state of constant fear; it was far too late for him to be able to survive without it now. It wasn’t that he was a masochist… he didn’t enjoy being hurt or in pain, but he needed something to keep his heart pounding, the spark of survival alive. The jungle was a beautiful compromise for this.

Hadrian continued his fast pace through the thick foliage, the thick grouping of trees and how they naturally reached up towards the sun; spreading out to form a thick canopy overhead, left the jungle floor below in a state of near darkness regardless of the time of day. The darkness mattered little to Hadrian in this form, it really only served as better camouflage.

Hadrian recalled the first time that he had accidently shifted into this form. He had been beyond shocked. Not only was he deep within a jungle that was suppose to suppress magic to the point where even a small lumos spell would be impossible, but he had also never studied or trained to achieve the transformation.

In fact at the time he had been sure that he was about to be another cat’s next meal. It was early on in his arrival and he had been naïve, reckless and just a tad cocky. He had not taken the warnings given to him seriously. He had faced danger and life threatening creatures since the time he was eleven, he had doubted that there was anything worse in the jungle then a fire breathing dragon or three headed dog… He had of course forgotten the fact that he did not have his magic to protect him.

His predilection of being a danger magnet had of course once again proved to be present when he had been cornered by a large lethal looking leopard. The admittedly beautiful cat had clearly been injured and was half starved because of this injury. Instead of the injury making the cat less dangerous, it had instead served to make it much more desperate and therefore willing to attack where it might have previously retreated. Time had seemed to slow to a standstill and it was in the moment that the cat was crouching preparing to attack that Hadrian had closed his eyes, not willing to witness his own death.

Instead of the sharp shredding feeling of his jugular, Hadrian had instead felt a constricting, lancing pain throughout his body almost as if he was being put through a combination of apparition and the cruciatus curse. When he had opened his eyes again he was shocked to find that he was a great deal shorter, and rather more hairy. The Leopard recognizing its larger cousin and turned tail and fled. It had taken Hadrian 3 days to shift back to his original form, and another 3 months to figure out why he had been able to shift in the first place.

The most reasonable explanation he could come up with was that the immense magical power he now carried within him (thanks to lovely lord Voldemort) was great enough that it could still surface despite the great dampening effects of the Kapok trees. While Hadrian was immensely thankful for this dampening effect (he didn’t much fancy the idea of being blown into tiny little smithereens) he was still relieved that he could perform some magic.

He had tried to keep this fact as quiet as possible, and up until a few hours ago had been fairly successful. Only now that he had, had time and space to cool off was he starting to greatly regret his hasty departure from the group earlier. He was not sure if he had shifted before he was hidden from the view of the others, but feared that he just might have. He had been too caught up in his anger and desperate to get away that he had ignored his natural caution.

He couldn’t even say why he had gotten so angry over Draco’s insensitive comment. He knew he was still raw over the war, he knew that seeing Draco and Blaise again had stirred up old memories and grievances but still it shouldn’t have caused him to fly off the handle like that. He didn’t know what had gotten into him. Okay so that was a lie. He did know. He hadn’t had his potion in four days; he knew that he was stupid to let it go that long.

Not only did the destabilization of his core make his mood swing more frequently but it also made those swings much more dramatic. No, even without the effect on his mood and personality it was stupid to risk himself or the others. It was especially stupid given how Draco had always managed to get a rise out of him; all it would take would be one especially dramatic swing for him to lose control of himself. He shuddered to think what would happen if he ever did that.

There had only ever been one time that he had been truly close to losing his iron clad grip on his magic. He closed his slitted green eyes in pain and quickly banished those memories. They might not have been a part of the war but they belonged in the same lock box allocated for them. Hadrian shook his head sharply and refocused on his current problem.

He would have to brew a new batch tonight and make it a large enough batch to last him for a few weeks at the very least. He could do that, he would wait for the others to fall asleep; given the increase of physical activity for both Blaise and Draco it wouldn’t take them long. And Juan had always been a deep sleeper…yes this was the best solution he could think of. He would have to collect the ingredients for the potion now then.

Hadrian used his enhanced vision to scan the damp undergrowth surrounding him. He caught a flash of brilliant blue barely made visible because of the dense ferns surrounding it. The iced Bromilily. While still undiscovered by muggles (due to their ability to fade into their surroundings) they were a rather common ingredient in suppressing based concoctions. Hadrian leapt lightly to the jungle floor and was about to shift back to his human form when a faint scent caught his nostrils.

His body followed his mind and froze in shock. ‘No!’ He thought feeling as if the air around him was growing heavier and cloying. It couldn’t be! Not here, not now. The memories he had previously batted back behind his wall of denial came rushing to the surface.

Anger. Pain. Fear. Thick, strangling scents. Rough, uncaring swings. Blood. Yelling….he felt his mind spiraling out of control. ‘No!’ he screamed at himself and forced his muscles to unlock. He dragged in his cat’s form of a ragged breath and fought to get his emotions back under control. No. Panic would help no one. Not the others and definitely not himself. He needed a clear head.

Hadrian carefully blended back into the shadows and held himself still once more, this time doing so purposefully. He carefully let his feline senses take over. Yes, he was right the first time. It was HIS scent. He forced himself to stay calm and allowed his eyes to make a second sweep of the ground. This time looking for signs he had missed before.

He found them. A faint boot print, the residue of gunpowder on the trunk of a tree, an old indent of a trap. Yes, poachers alright. The scent he got from the boot print proved that he was right to be alarmed. It was not just poachers…it was THAT poacher.

It was him.

‘There was nothing he could do right now’ he told himself firmly. He needed to finish gathering the ingredients. Yes, he would do that, collect what he needed and get back to camp. They would not stay an extra day; they could stop later…when they had some distance for Draco and Blaise to collect different samples. They would not be happy about this change. But he did not care.

Sometimes the worst sorts of predators were those that could disguise themselves. Yes, the worst sorts were the ones that pretended to be prey


	8. Chapter 7: Of Habitats and hiding

** Chapter 7: Of Habitats and hiding **

_Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” ―_ [ _André Malraux_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/63564.Andr_Malraux)

_Many rainforest animals use camouflage to blend in with their surroundings and protect themselves from predators. Some animals do this by changing the shape of their bodies, while others use colors so that predators have difficulty seeing them_

**January 8, Day: 8,**

**192 km from starting point on Napo River, 2:00am**

Draco flipped from his back to his side yet again. He had been tossing and turning since he first lay down on his thin, horrendously lumpy sleeping roll many hours ago. He had for once actually listened to Blaise and taken his advice; leading him to apologize to Hadrian when he returned. The stupid git had made him wait until after nine to return too! Draco snorted mentally to himself; this jungle was truly ruining his hard fought bad boy image…hell, he was now getting irritated if he had to stay up past 8:30pm. Pathetic. Truly.

He sighed and flipped once again. Really could they not come up with a more aesthetically pleasing color then faded orange? The amount that the horrid colour made up this plastic death trap was vomit- inducing. He spent several minutes distracting himself from his previous thoughts by trying to imagine what colour would actually make a pleasing tent, but eventually gave the practice up as futile. No, he really did not care what colors or material made up the tents, he was simply trying to ignore the worried gnawing that had been in his gut since Hadrian had returned.

Hadrian had all but stumbled out of the jungle; his hair mussed, heaving breathes, as if he had been sprinting for his life, a feral wild look in his eyes. It had only taken him a few seconds to virtually pull himself back from the edge and regain the look of calm, confidant guide, but it was too late to go unnoticed, at least by Draco. If Blaise and Juan noted anything they did not mention it, so Draco too bit his tongue.

Draco had swallowed his pride and walked over, he had rehearsed a fluid and suave sounding apology to give Hadrian in the hours he had waited. But of course as soon as he was standing in front of the man that he had finally come to realize he might just love, these words had vanished. Instead a stumbling, jilted, stuttered apology and an even less coherent explanation were left in its place. All of them said into Hadrian’s mask like face.

Draco had expected to be punched or yelled at, or deep, deep down he might have imagined Hadrian’s undying gratitude at Draco’s admission of wrong. He did not receive any of these things however…instead he received a curt nod and ‘accepted’, before the beautiful man had turned and walked over to the gear, leaving Draco standing there, feeling the fool.

It had taken all of his efforts not to snap and throw a hissy fit. Six years ago he would have. He would have snarled and sneered, thrown words and insults like daggers and if that had still failed to attain the attention of the former boy hero, he likely would have moved on to curses and fists. Now though he had the presence of mind to fight his irritation at being ignored, back into the recesses of his mind and walk calmly over to where Blaise was sitting by a fire.

It did not stop him from brooding over it however, nor did it stop him from watching Hadrian a tad closer the rest of the night. The boy he had once known would have been quick to rise to the bait, to cry aggrievement or stand on some moral precedent, but this boy…no man, simply accepted the apology with a weary, tired, defeated look present in those iridescent green eyes.

Yes, Draco was good at observing people and their mannerisms. Had he not been a potion master he would have likely made an incredible politician. His childhood training in lies and manipulations served to allow him to better recognize them in those around him. Not only was he rather skilled at spotting mistruths but he was generally fairly good at recognizing motivations and moods, deciphering nuances and hidden meanings in conversation and movement. For these reasons Draco recognized there was something grievously wrong with Hadrian.

Perhaps that is not the best way to state things. What he meant was that something had happened since they last saw their recently discovered guide, and that something was nothing good. He noticed it in the tense bunching of Hadrian’s muscles, the paranoid darting of his eyes when he thought the others were not paying attention. The restless pacing, as if Hadrian could not afford to sit and relax. Sure the man had always been tightly strung but this was beyond anything Draco had ever seen of him.

By the time the others started calling it a night, and crawling under various mosquito nets and into sleeping bags (Draco and Blaise) or hammocks (Hadrian and Juan), Draco was looking forward to closing his eyes and forgetting the entire day. He had been fighting all evening to keep his eyes open, but of course the moment that it was actually time to sleep he found himself wide awake.

Blaise’s deep breathes filled the tent, ricocheting off of the putrid canvas and echoing so that it was all that Draco could hear. He felt as if his sleeping bag was slowly strangling him, encasing his limbs and limiting his movements. And no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, his bladder felt as if it was about to burst… that feeling of course receded into nothing the moment he got up to do something about it.

More than a little irritated with this inability to sleep Draco decided that he might as well get up and at least sit outside the plastic tomb. While the air was still thick with humidity and the remnants of the day’s heat, it was better than the stale furnace inside the tent.

Trying to keep as quiet as possible Draco carefully unzipped the tent door and crept outside, letting a quiet sigh of relief escape as he silently stood up and stretched his stiff back and shoulders. Looking towards the steadily flowing river he froze. Given the hour he had fully expected to be the only one still awake and definitely the only one stupid enough to venture outside his shelter in the dark. He had most definitely not expected to see Hadrian.

Even more surprising then the raven haired man’s presence was what he was actually doing beyond his presence. Hadrian was standing in front of the low burning fire, his back to Draco; the orange and red embers glowed causing shadows and light to dance and flicker across his tanned face and arms. He was leaning over what looked like a large steel pot, similar to what Draco had once seen in a muggle’s kitchen and aid brochure. Draco had taken to pursuing such adverts in hopes of finding and perfecting his own brewing skills. He had found that many of the muggle cooking utensils were actually fairly useful in the art of potion making. Not that he would ever admit this to anyone outside of Blaise.

For a moment when Hadrian abruptly turned and took some flower out of the satchel at his feet Draco feared that he had been discovered. It’s not as if he was doing anything wrong, but for some reason he could not isolate, he felt as if he was witnessing something incredibly private. His worries were for naught however because Hadrian turned back to the pot and carefully added the plant to the concoction inside. The brief flare caused by the addition, lit up an expression of intense concentration, something Draco had thought impossible when it came to Potter and potions.

Yet another thing that was different about the man. Just what was Potter making? What cause did he have to be brewing a potion not only in the middle of the jungle but in what he obviously thought was solitude, during the middle of the night?

As Draco watched Hadrian carefully reached back into his bag and removed what appeared to be a small glass beaker, (it was actually rather similar to the ones they had used back in Hogwarts to present their finished potions to Professor Snape). He carefully dipped the beaker into the silver pot and filled it about half full of a fluorescent blue liquid.

Draco watched as Hadrian made a face of distaste before sighing and quickly downing the contents. This was followed by a round of violent coughing that caused Hadrian to hunch over bracing his hands against both legs. Finally the coughing stopped and Hadrian stood up and once again reached for the bag at his feet. This time Draco barely managed to contain his gasp at what Hadrian removed.

Potter’s wand!(no you perverts not THAT wand) What the hell? Was it not impossible to do magic in this blasted jungle? Was that not the reason that they were being forced to travel muggle style through this bug invested swamp? But even as Draco was mentally screaming in outrage he watched Hadrian give a quick wave and transfer the vat of blue liquid into the large leather canteen that he always wore.

Draco made his way as quickly and quietly as he could back inside his tent and laid down, desperately trying to order his thoughts. What was going on? What was Hadrian hiding? And what the hell was he drinking?

All Draco knew for sure was Hadrian had more than his share of secrets. And Draco could not allow that….

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**January 16, Day: 16,**

**575 km from starting point on Napo River, 12pm**

 

‘One, two, three, four and One, two, three, four and one.. .’ This was the mantra that Blaise was repeating inside his head over and over again as he concentrated on keeping a steady rhythm to his paddling. After almost two weeks in boat, slowly but surely making its way deeper into the thick Peruvian jungle Blaise was starting to get the hang of it.

While most morning’s he still awoke stiff, his muscles silently screaming protest to movement of any kind, he noted that he was slowly getting easier and easier to rise at the crack of dawn. His taste buds were starting to adjust to the mix of bland tasting beans and rice, while learning to appreciate the almost sickly sweet plantain and papaya chunks mixed in. And while Blaise certainly never had to worry about getting a sunburn, the heat and sweat rash that had been present since they set off was fading. In short he was adjusting.

Well, adjusting to the elements and physical work anyhow. He still hadn’t quite managed to adjust to his group mates and their ever changing behaviors. The day following Draco and Hadrian’s spat consisted of rapid and a tad frantic paddling instead of the day off that they had been promised. To his great surprise Draco had held his tongue and barely whined over this decision (well okay so his complaints had been quieter…which for Draco this was a major thing).

Juan had seemed just as puzzled as the two European’s had, over Hadrian’s announcement but after Hadrian had drawn him aside and had what looked to be a rather serious and hushed conversation, Juan had been just as eager as Hadrian to set off. While this was indeed a tad odd, Blaise hadn’t really thought much of it and had concentrated in getting through yet another day of sweat and pain.

It was only when he had noted Draco’s increased wariness and Hadrian’s increased nervousness had he stopped and paid a little more attention. Draco had suddenly become quieter and more observant, watching Hadrian (when he thought he could do so unnoticed) with an almost obsessive eye. And while Blaise was more than a little aware of Draco’s not so secret feelings for Hadrian, this increased observation somehow did not fit. (This was yet another thing that Blaise was going back and forth on. He had never told Draco of his and Hadrian’s brief affair back in sixth year. At the time he had not trusted the blond enough to tell him and then after Hadrian had disappeared, he had seen no reason to….now however…well he could think about this later).

And while Draco was calmer and more observant, Hadrian was jumpier and increasingly nervous. It seemed as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Blaise was fairly certain the man rarely slept, and this was given evidence from the increasingly dark shadows under his eyes.

He sighed in frustration to himself. He knew that he had more than a few secrets and he knew that they were slowly eating away at him.

From what he could tell though…he was not the only one.


	9. Chapter 8: Information in Iquitos

** Chapter 8: Information in Iquitos  **

_Iquitos is the largest city in the world unreachable by road. It is famous for it’s rubber industry. It contains a floating market, known as Belén, is on the embankment in Iquitos. Over 150 native communities from upriver come down here to sell their produce in the Market. Belen is the hub of every village within miles, chaotic, flavorful, practical and superstitious, thriving on and above a strip of land that is seasonally flooded_

**January 26, Day 26,**

**800km from departure point.**

**Iquitos downtown, 8am**

Iquitos was truly the cosmopolitan of the Amazon. It was so similar, yet so very different from any city Blaise had ever stepped foot in. In some ways it was what one might expect of Peru’s fifth largest city, the home of approximately 400,000 people (the mix of which were wizards to muggles, Blaise was not certain). It was busy, noisy, crowded, and in many places overrun with garbage, flashy signs and blatant westernization. However, if you took the time to look below the initial humdrum of daily commercialism, you would see the second side of Iquitos, the side that made it uniquely Amazonian.

Unlike London, Heathrow or even the capitals of many 3rd world countries, Iquitos had its own unique flavor. This flavor was found in the friendly smiles of the local vendors, the quiet neighborhoods that boasted of quaint family life with clean simple architecture and abundantly lush gardens. It was there in the fresh fruit piles and the cheeky merchants, who fought for the attentions of possible customers. It was in the clashing aromas of decay and blooming flowers. It simply was.

Their small party had arrived in this bustling jungle city late yesterday and had wasted little time in traveling to the place Juan had booked earlier in December. While Draco had made no qualms in voicing his doubts over a place that was named _Hostal Huaryruro,_ * Blaise had been admittedly satisfied with the said choice of accommodations.

Of course this lack of distain might have been partly due to the fact that after more than twenty days in a hot, smelly, orange atrocity, sleeping on rather uncomfortable bed rolls, anything would seem luxurious. Either way Blaise found no reason to complain. The hotel was clean, bright and most importantly had a wonderful muggle invention call air-conditioning (which was apparently the non-magical equivalent of a long lasting cooling charm). Blaise had to hand it to the muggles, they could be rather inventive.

Draco and Blaise had been given one room with two single beds, while Juan and Hadrian took the second. Hadrian had separated from the group as soon as he had handed them room keys, for the rationale of finding them a decent dinner. One that did not consist of beans, plantains or rice (this stipulation had been made rather adamantly by one Draco Malfoy). Juan had remained behind and had set to unpacking all of the packs, making separate piles of laundry, humidity ruined food supplies, and containers consisting of empty burn salve and ripped mosquito nets.

He had told them that both he and Hadrian would take time to replenish their supplies, get clean clothing and mend whatever needed mending. Blaise was once again relieved that although he had to suffer through the physicality of the trip he did not have the added the responsibility of organizing and tending to others.

He was rather thrilled that from their room’s balcony they could make out the shore of a large water basin that ran off the Amazon river (Jaun had informed him that they had travelled down the Napo River to the point where it connected to the greater Amazon River, which they had followed into the city. He told him that when they left they would continue to follow this famous river to where it split off into the Ucayali River, and then continue down deeper into the Peruvian Rainforest.)

Hadrian had returned bearing two steaming thin crust pizza’s for Draco and Blaise. Blaise had to force back a snicker at the look of udder adoration that Draco had sent their beautiful guide, when the blond caught the smell of cheese and grease. Both Hadrian and Juan had stuck with something that they called Juanes (which ironically enough were Juan’s favorite food but had no correlation to their naming). They turned out to be balls of rice stuffed with fish or in some cases chicken, all wrapped up in some type of leaf.

And while Blaise could admit they both looked and smelled good, he was more than happy for a break from the ‘traditional’ jungle fare. Having stuffed themselves with as much pizza as they could manage, both of the boys retired to their own room and had basked in the frigid, arctic temperature that Draco had set the ‘air thingy’ to.

Blaise had awaken around eight the next morning feeling blissfully indulged at the 3 hour later than normal wake-up time, and had reluctantly exited the warm depths of his comforter to brave the icy environment of their room. Following a long, steamy shower (one where the water only cut out twice), he had wandered down to the small hostel canteen in the lobby.

He found both Jaun and Hadrian deep in discussion; a discussion filled with tense shoulders, hushed tones and worried brows. They had immediately straightened and adopted friendly, cheerful smiles the moment they were made aware of his presence. Blaise thought about asking what had them in such a snit but decided against it.

So, instead he had taken the offered seat, from which Hadrian had hastily moved what looked to be a newly patched mosquito net and thanked Juan for the plate of fresh fruit and strongly brewed coffee. If there had been one thing that he had desperately missed it was coffee. A dreadful addiction he had picked up at during his equally dreadful marriage. At least the coffee, while bad for his health had been enjoyable.

“So, what are the plans for today?” he had ventured after draining the first half of his steaming elixir.

Hadrian who had been watching with more concentration then warranted, as Blaise indulged gave his head a quick shake and cleared his throat to answer, “Um, well there are a couple options. Juan has some business to take care of so I will be your guide for the day. I was hoping to finish buying our food supplies and perhaps finding some more propane for the stove…I was thinking of taking the two of you to the Belen Marketplace….” He trailed off with a look of uncertainty.

“That sounds fine. Anything that has market in the name is sure to appeal to the inner shopaholic in Draco” Blaise readily agreed, secretly thrilled with the idea of spending time with Hadrian that did not consist of paddling a boat.

Hadrian nodded in response though continued to look slightly worried, “Er…it’s not really that type of market place….” He hedged before continuing, “It is a truly fascinating place and I am sure both of you will find something you like there….but it is quite different from the shopping areas that you are likely used to….It can be…er, well in all honesty if you are not careful you can find trouble there. So, if I do take the two of you we will have to establish some ground rules first” Hadrian looked quite serious, as though he was setting a bed time for a small child rather than the very adult man in front of him.

Blaise found his concern endearing and decided not to say anything about it. Taking this as accordance to his statement Hadrian continued, “I think we should also stop at the main post office. I believe your place of employment had arranged for letters to be forwarded to assigned stops along our route?” He asked politely, though Blaise could see a blazing curiosity in his eyes over the shared knowledge that Blaise was now working for the Minstery. Something that in his youth he had been quick to scorn.

“That is agreeable” Blaise answered, ignoring the unvoiced question in those emerald orbs.

‘What’s agreeable?” a third voice joined the conversation, this one belonging to the recently arrived blond of the group. Juan as usual sat back and watched silently with a slight smirk playing on his lips, as if he found everything around him a great joke.

“Hadrian was just discussing our plans for the day….stopping to pick up our mail and then going to the market….what was it? Belen? Was that the name?” Blaise asked Hadrian, his momentary lapse of memory entirely false. He simply wanted to hear the raven haired’s melodic voice again.

His ignorance paid off when Hadrian straightened and answered, “Yes, that is correct….is this okay with you? Or would you rather do something else? I suppose I could drop you both off at the zoo or some other….er safer attraction while I pick up supplies if that is more agreeable? Or if you wanted to remain here, that would be fine also….”

“No, we will come with you. Plus I am sure that you will be able to protect us…” Draco cut him off, his reply trailing off as if he had more to add but had decided against it.

Blaise was pleasantly surprised at his friend’s restraint for once. Even a month ago Draco would not have been able to resist the urge to needle Hadrian over his past hero complex. This thought caused the chocolate skinned man to pause. Draco really had been acting rather differently this past week, well really the last nine or so days….ever since that fight…..interesting. Well it was something to ponder anyhow.

Hadrian’s brow furrowed in slight confusion, seemingly unsure if Draco meant the comment as a barb or not. In the end it appeared that he decided on the second because he shrugged slightly and pushed his chair back. “Ok, well then I will leave you both to your breakfast. We should head out in an hour or so, the post office will become much more crowded later in the day. Then we will head to Belen…yes?”

Blaise had noticed that Hadrian’s way of speaking had changed since they last saw him, almost developing a barely present accent. Again he wondered about the life the man had been living for the past five years. Once again he shrugged it off. So, the man had secrets….it really only added to the appeal.

He was still hesitant to pursue anything. As much as his marriage was over, they were still waiting for the final papers, the finality that would allow him to be his own man again. He was hesitant to risk anything (aka keeping at least some of his fortune and means) for the distant chance that Hadrian might want to resume what they had all those years back. Then there was Draco, if he did choose to pursue Hadrian he would have to admit it to his best friend. And knowing Draco as well as he did he knew the blond would see this as the ultimate betrayal.

Really there were so many reasons to back away and ignore the growing attraction he felt to the former boy hero….yet, somehow these reasons were mattering less and less to him.

With every paddle stroke, Blaise found himself falling deeper. He only hoped that there would be someone to stop him from drowning.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**_Belen Market Place_ ** **, Iquitos**

**10am**

Draco fought to keep the confusion he was feeling off of his face. Confusion brought on for once not by Hadrian, but by his other trip mate, Blaise. Draco’s morning had started out delightfully. He had woken to the muted light of a hot sun, blocked partially by heavy drapes, trickling into the arctic nirvana, that was his room.

Only a month ago, he might have stuck his nose up at the commercially reproducible, art work that adorned the bland walls or the slightly threadbare duvet that draped across an equally worn mattress, but surprisingly his jungle accommodations had cured him of these hang-ups. The place was clean and more importantly it was cold. Blissfully, middle of December in rainy England cold.

He had a slight hiccup to his divine morning when he walked downstairs and was greeted to the sight of one Blaise Zabini leaning, almost…well almost _intimately_ towards Hadrian. But he had stifled the brief feeling of jealousy, recalling that Blaise was definitely straight and married.

The second, he had only recently discovered was not so. He had found it out accidently really…he had not MEANT to be snooping into his best friend’s affairs….well, okay he had. But truly it was for his own well being.

When they had arrived at the post office, there had been several letters and notices waiting for both of them. He had noted briefly that there was a thin envelope waiting for Hadrian as well, but his natural curiosity was left unanswered as Hadrian had quickly stuffed the envelope into the colorful sash wrapped around his waist and told them he would wait outside.

Draco’s curiosity however was almost immediately drawn to Blaise who was intensely studying several papers that he had withdrawn from a thick envelope. His brow furrowed as he read, and then a truly joyful smile broke out.

“Hey, watch my bag, I’m just going to go and grab a few envelopes to answer” He had direct distractedly at Draco before tucking the papers face down underneath his bag on one of the plastic waiting chairs beside Draco.

Draco had nodded and when he was sure that his friend was sufficiently distracted by the attempts to make himself understood to the very non-English speaking employee behind the mail counter, he had quickly snatched said papers to read. Whatever he had been expecting to find (really he thought it might be information on the rest of their journey, or perhaps a note from Blaise’s pompous boss that he could tease his friend about later) it was not finalized divorce papers.

Draco had stared in shock at the papers for several minutes before remembering himself and hastily placing the papers in the exact place he had taken them from. So, Blaise was getting divorced? Since when? And why hadn’t he said anything to Draco about it? Draco felt a small pang of hurt….was he not trustworthy enough to confide in?

He had spent several minutes indulging in self righteous hurt and anger before his common sense caught up with him. Of course Blaise trusted him…he was likely just embarrassed. Surely if Draco showed how supportive and understanding he could be his friend would open up. Surely.

He forced an unconcerned smile onto his face as he made an offhand comment on the distastefulness of having dead animal carcasses hanging from hooks in the middle of a public area, while he followed Hadrian and Blaise deeper into the insane mess that was Belen Marketplace.

Surely, Blaise would tell him soon….after all they had no secrets from one another….right?


	10. Chapter 9: Indiscretion in Iquitos

** Chapter 9: Indiscretion in Iquitos  **

_Only two seasons: high water season (from December to May when the snow melts in the Andes during the summer in the South Hemisphere) and low water season (from June to November when water levels drop 45 feet during the dry, winter)_

  ** _January 26, Day 26_**

**_Belen Market Place, Iquitos_ **

**_10am_ **

Hadrian weaved his way effortlessly through the overcrowded aisles of the Belen Market. He took a moment away from his wary observations to simply revel in the wildness of the place. Hadrian had been coming to this meca of culture for the past several years. He both loved and hated it, both admiring and distaining the chaos of survival that it housed.

He couldn’t help but admire the true ability for muggles and wizard to improvise when needed, the sheer number of different wares and products available in the crowded market proved this true. And while he could appreciate the vital need for it all; from the various braying and calls of domesticated (and not so domesticated) animals, the pungent odor of exotic spices, to the brilliant palate of colored clothes and adornments on display, he could not help but long for the relative silence of the jungle.

Absorbed in his thoughts while trying equally to make sure Draco and Blaise where keeping up to him (for first timers they were not actually doing so badly, of course this was likely due to the fact that people of all sorts scurried out of Hadrian’s path. He had never been sure if this was because of his oppressive magical aura, despite how he suppressed it or simply the confidence he held himself with. He knew that at Hogwarts at least, this had never occurred), he failed to register the man in front of him until a moment too late.

His momentary inattention caused him to have to come to an abrupt stop to avoid the imminent collision. “Watch the fuck where you are going you imbecile!” a heavily accented Italian voice shouted. At the sound of that all too familiar voice Hadrian felt his insides freeze.

‘No Fuckin way!” he thought desperately, ‘this had to be a nightmare, a nightmare that he was going to wake up from any moment! There was just no way, that fate hated him enough to make orchestrate the coincidence of running into the one man he had been so desperately fleeing. Hadrian forced himself to inhale a breath of air and open his eyes.

‘Fuck! No nightmare then,’ he looked at the man in front of him, ‘maybe he won’t recognize me? Maybe there is a chance to walk away quickly and have him overlook the whole thing.’ But when Hadrian looked up again he knew that this was the desperate plea of a dying man, the look of recognition in the chocolate eyes in front of him told him this.

“Well, I’ll be damned…” the man exclaimed a slow smirk spreading lazily across his face, “Hadrian….it’s been to long” he purred.

“Not long enough” Hadrian hissed at his past lover, and attempted to move to the side in order to leave. A restraining hand grabbed his upper arm preventing this. Hadrian fought the overwhelming urge to flinch at the man’s touch.

“Now, now is that anyway to greet an old friend, Hadrian?” he asked and Hadrian found himself forced to take a step back to escape being pressed against the man.

“We were never friends, _Anton_ ….as you well know” Hadrian stated his voice flat, masking the revulsion he felt.

“Why I’m hurt! I would say we were a great deal more than friends….after all, I do hope you don’t treat all of your friends the way you did me” Anton stated rubbing Hadrian’s upper arm suggestively.

“Back the hell off Anton!” Hadrian spat at him yanking his arm forcefully away then stated his next comment in a much quieter tone, one he was sure that Draco and Blaise would be unable to hear, “You are lucky I didn’t press charges. I won’t restrain myself from doings so again.”

Anton’s cocky smirk faltered slightly his brown eyes hardening, “I do not think you had sufficient evidence my love, in fact it could be said that I had a better chance at obtaining cause against you”

“Fuck you, defense is a right, not a crime” Hadrian snarled, straining to keep the tight grip on his fluctuating magic.

“Why I think I would enjoy that, you only had to ask” Anton retorted his smirk once again gaining strength, “I don’t suppose you would be more willing to an exchange this time?”

“Stay the hell away from me. I really won’t restrain myself if we meet again” Hadrian stated pushing the man hard enough that he stumbled somewhat, before briskly walk past him.

Sharp ears recognizing the hurried steps of his two companions hustling to keep pace with his abrupt departure, Hadrian did not slow until he was sure there was suitable distance between him and Anton. Only then did he stop and allow the shudder he had been repressing to rack through his frame.

“What the hell was that?” Blaise asked as both he and Draco caught up to their guide, “Who was he? What did he want?”

‘Who was he indeed’ Hadrian thought bitterly to himself, ‘only the second most hated person in Hadrian’s life, falling just after Voldemort and before Vernon Dursley.

“He’s nobody, no one” Hadrian ground out, expertly reining his rioting emotions back under control and straightening to face his charges.

“He didn’t appear to be no one” Draco inserted stubbornly, his face scrunched in a mulish cast, “What were you guys even talking about, we couldn’t hear.”

“Nothing, he’s just someone I used to know. It doesn’t matter….I doubt we will be running into him again” Hadrian dismissed with an irritated wave, “now shall we actually get around to buying something? Or should be just continue to waste time?”

Not waiting for an answer he spun and once again continued leading them towards the ‘edible area’ of the market (it was truly amazing what some considered edible).

As his heart slowly slowed back to its normal rhythm he could only hope that he was right.

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

**Jan 27, Day 27**

**800km from start**

**Noa-Noa Disco Pub**

**12:50am**

 

Draco pushed his way through the press of sweaty, gyrating bodies, the thudding from the speakers keeping time with that of his heart. The cloying smell of sweat, smoke and arousal pressing in from every side. He had long ago given up on trying to make it through the dancing throngs politely and had resorted to well placed elbows and hard stomps to the insoles of the most persistent of partiers.

He once again damned Blaise and his dark skin; it really did not stick out in the dim lighting of the club, well not like the bright blond that Draco sported anyway. He gave a small sigh of relief as he finally caught sight of one of his companions; it appeared that the rest of the group had found a small side booth where they were now doing their best to consume as much alcoholic beverage as possible.

He held back a snort. Oh suuuure... no one had wanted to go out tonight. What a load of shit that was. After whatever had happened between Hadrian and the swarthy good looking man, Anton (something that Draco was not jealous about, no not one iota….) Hadrian had fallen into a deep sullen silence.

No amount of prying or poking had done anything to reveal just who this Anton was or his relationship to Hadrian. The remainder of the day had been rather lacking, Hadrian quietly brooding, Blaise bouncing between a worried, anxious countenance and a relieved, happy one. (He still hadn’t told Draco anything about his divorce and Draco was trying to not let this offend him). Draco had, had enough.

They were only spending a total of three days in the city before they had to return to that bug infested swampy (okay, so Draco was slowly becoming more appreciative of the jungle but come on….he was a Malfoy, these things take time), and he did not want to waste them with everyone in the group studiously ignoring each other. So, in a moment that was rather out of character for him, he had suggested that they all go out for the night, to drink and just get rid of some of their stress.

Blaise had not been all that hard to convince, his friend had always enjoyed letting loose and having fun. Of course this side of his friend had slowly been smothered in the last few years, something Draco admitted a tad guiltily, that he had failed to notice. If Draco had not seen the divorce papers earlier he doubted he would have recognized the renewed eagerness and excitement in his friend’s eyes at the mention of going out for a night of revelry.

Hadrian had been a tad more resistant, starting out by just straight out refusing. Eventually between the doubled efforts of both Draco and Blaise, he had relented to coming…though stated adamantly that he would not be drinking. That had been three hours and several drinks ago.

Once they had managed to coerce the reluctant man into drinking one, there had been very little hesitance in the next six or seven. Now, with both Blaise and Hadrian draining more and more shot glasses it had fallen to Draco to be the responsible one of the group.

He finally made his way to their booth, placing the overflowing glasses down on the table and slumping into the booth beside Hadrian.

“Draaaacoo” Hadrian cried in a loud drunken greeting, a large grin on his face as he leaned into Draco’s body heat.

“Hadrian….” Draco replied pushing the annoying upswing in his stomach away at the sound of his first name coming from Hadrian’s mouth, “I think you have had a little much to drink”

“Noooope, I don’t think so…feels nice, so longs since feeling nice. You’re very nice Draaco, and B is really nice….” Hadrian trailed off his forehead scrunching rather adorably as he lost that train of thought. He shook his head once and went back to leaning against Draco smiling.

‘He thinks your nice’ the thought ricocheted through Draco’s mind before he stubbornly berated himself once more, ‘Shut up you pathetic lovesick fool, he’s drunk out of his mind he doesn’t have a clue what nonsense he’s spouting’.

His mental reaming was interrupted by the feeling of soft lips pressed to the curve of his neck, he froze forcing himself to ignore the blood rushing south at an alarming rate.

“you are nice and very pretty….and you smell good too” Hadrian continued his monologue mostly to himself, seemingly unaware of his audience.

“Hadrian….I think you have had too much to drink, maybe we should step outside for some air?” Draco asked gently pushing the inebriated man back from his ministrations to Draco’s neck. Fighting the disappointment he felt at the loss of the other man’s body.

Hadrian adopted a pouty look at the restraint, “no, I don wanna…”

“I don’t care, come on. Can you stand or do you need me to drag your sorry arse?” Draco stated keeping his tone firm as he slid back out of the booth.

Blaise was taking part in what appeared to be a very meaningful conversation with Juan “ _But I don’t understand just because a unicorn is purple doesn’t make it fluffy,”_ Draco really did not want to get involved with that senseless conversation, ever since Blaise had watched some muggle shows called ‘ _Despicable me_ ’ or some none sense like that when drunk, he had been obsessed with fluffy unicorns.

Hadrian slowly drug himself from the booth, stumbling and swaying as they made their way to the entrance that led out into the street, and slightly fresher air. While the night temperature was still close to 25C it was a damn sight cooler then the sauna inside.

It took them the better part of thirty minutes to escape the confines of the club, when they finally did Hadrian slumped down on a curb and refused to move further. Sighing in defeat Draco hesitantly sat down beside him. Never in a million years had he ever pictured himself sitting next to a smashed Harry Potter, on a disgustingly dirty, muggle curb thousands of miles from home. Nope it was rather surreal.

Hadrian had gone back to leaning against him, a contented smile on his face. “Your nice….much nicer then Anton, he wasn’t nice. Not like you” he mumbled, slumping further onto Draco.

Even with the smell of smoke, alcohol and clubbing on him, Draco could not help but note that Hadrian’s own spicy scent was still prevalent. Stop it! He yelled at himself. He determinedly pushed those thoughts away as he focused on what Hadrian had said.

“Anton? Was he the guy in the market place” He asked, he felt slightly ashamed for taking advantage of the raven haired man’s lowered inhibitions but he was dying of curiosity.

“Yuuup…..big, big mistake…not nice at all…..” Hadrian replied, apparently forgetting that he had wanted to keep any information on this man secret.

“What do you mean not nice Hadrian?” Draco asked, a feeling of dread creeping into his stomach.

“hmmm….it’s not nice to lie, or hit or yell….or…or other stuff” Hadrian replied, stumbling at the end seemingly folding into himself.

“Hadrian what other stuff?” Draco asked careful to keep his tone soft, the uneasy feeling growing. He somehow knew that whatever other stuff was that it was not good.

Hadrian shook his head violently and tried to pull himself back into a sitting position, away from Draco, “No! No! I don’t want to talk about it” He shouted suddenly, trying to scuttle back.

Alarmed by this sudden change, Draco grabbed onto the now shaking man and pulled him back, wrapping his arms firmly around the quivering figure. “Shh….Hadrian, it’s okay, it’s okay….You don’t have to tell me okay? I’m not going to force you. Your okay…shhhh” He murmured, tightening his hold all while moving his one hand in soothing circles across the other man’s back.

Hadrian remained tense in his arms but slowly began to relax, finally slumping back against Draco. When the man’s breath had calmed back down into a normal pattern, Draco allowed himself his own breath of relief. What the hell was that? What on earth had happened to make Hadrian react like that?

Whatever it was, it was not something Hadrian should be keeping to himself….but for now Draco could wait. He would find out though.

Draco knew what it was too carry a heavy secret, the unbearable burden that just grew with time. He owed Hadrian to stop him from having a secret like this. So he would find out.

For Hadrian’s sake he vowed he would.


	11. Chapter 10: Upheaval on the Ucayali

** Chapter 10: Upheaval on the Ucayali  **

_There are many types of boats used to navigate the Amazonian river system. A dugout canoe is favored by locals, it does not rely on hard to obtain gasoline, it is narrow making it easier to navigate smaller river channels, and it protects the environment it travels in. A dugout or dugout canoe is a_ [ _boat_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat) _made from a hollowed tree trunk. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon_

**January 27, Day 27:**

**Iquitos, Hotel**

**1pm**

Hadrian tried his best to burrow further into the blessed darkness of his pillow. What the hell happened last night? He was pretty sure it had to have at least involved being run over by a herd of angry bulls, if the pounding pain in his skull was anything to judge by.

Reluctantly, he pushed weakly against what must have been his mattress and braced himself against the harsh sunlight filtering in through the blind shuttered window. Ugh….scratch that last thought he must have also at some point chosen to see what sand tasted like, given the dry, scratchy grating feeling in his mouth.

And this was why he did not drink anymore….okay so this was the most convenient excuse for why he didn’t drink anymore. The real reason was tied much too closely to the memories that he so liked to suppress.

Having managed to at least sit up without vomiting, he slowly stood up and stumbled his way towards where he thought the bathroom was supposed to be, stopping to curse loudly when he misjudged the doorway and instead half walked into the door frame.

‘Fuckin…hell, stupid bastard door”

“Ah….I see you are still alive then?” a familiar voice asked, not lacking in amusement at his current discomfort.

“..” Hadrian managed to turn slowly, only swaying slightly at the motion and the increased pounding to his brain (honestly he was doubting the lack of magic in this area, as it felt suspiciously like he had a groups of angry garden gnomes kicking in his brain), it took him a few seconds to sort out the fact that the blond man in front of him was indeed Draco Malfoy.

What Draco Malfoy was doing here was beyond his current comprehension skills, though now that he had managed to recognize the man, blurred, jumbled memories of the night before were making themselves painfully present. Dancing, Drinking, Flirting with Blaise, more drinking, Sitting, drinking….draco…..most of the previous were too disjointed to make much sense, and everything after was still blissfully blank. He groaned. He really hoped he hadn’t made an idiot of himself.

Or more worrying said anything that he really shouldn’t have.

Deciding the best plan of action at the moment was to ignore the blond and deal with his churning stomach, he continued to make his way into the bathroom. Several rather disgusting minutes later, an ice cold shower, and handful of extra-strength Tylenol (a rather useful muggle medication), he was able to think a little more clearly.

Annoyingly enough, Draco was still sitting on the edge of his bed, though fully clothed, something that Hadrian was rather relieved about. Not that the blond wasn’t attractive….wait! what? Okay….so not the point, focus Hadrian! It was also a relief that it looked as if Draco had not spent the entire night in said room, if the single crumpled side of the bed said anything.

So, at least he hadn’t made that mistake. It wasn’t as if Hadrian did not think he would enjoy sleeping with the blond, but after everything….well Draco deserved better. Sure Malfoy could be an annoying narcissistic prat, but he deserved to be with someone who wasn’t as damaged as Hadrian was.

Hadrian wasn’t stupid he saw the looks that Draco and for that matter, Blaise shot him when they thought he wasn’t paying attention (something that rarely happened, Hadrian was almost obsessively aware of his surroundings…it had saved his life more than once after all). And if he were to admit it, he found both men attractive in different ways.

Blaise was brilliant, handsome, calm… back when he and Blaise had been sleeping together in sixth year; he had thought he could grow to love the unobtrusive man. He was the first male Hadrian had ever slept with; he had helped him discover a new part of himself. Hadrian had wanted more from the smooth talking Italian. He had wanted commitment, promises…neither of which Blaise had been willing to give. And looking back on things this was probably smart, neither of them had been mature enough to have something that serious and have it survive the war.

At the time though, he hadn’t understood this and it had led to him giving an ultimatum. This in turn had ended things between them. Back then he had told himself that it didn’t matter, that he wasn’t hurt when Blaise hadn’t chosen him. To hide his injured pride he had immediately started a relationship with Ginny Weasley despite knowing deep down that it didn’t feel right, it wasn’t the same.

Given this history, he would be lying if he said he didn’t still feel that same pull towards the man, but with that pull also came the reluctance to get hurt again.

Then there was Draco. Someone who had always inspired intense emotions from him. Hate, Anger, Lust, Jealously. No matter how he tried to ignore the blond, Draco always managed to grab and hold his attention. Unfortunately like Blaise they also had a rather volatile history.

Had these been the only things in the way however, Hadrian would have likely pushed past and seen where things went. But they weren’t. Not any longer.

Now Hadrian had far deeper trust issues to add to the mix. He could thank Anton for that. He could thank Anton for his now habitual avoidance of alcohol and clubs as well. Well, thank wasn’t quite the right word for it. He definitely attributed his unhealthy paranoia to the man.

Thank god Jaun had been there all those years ago. That was something he truly was thankful for.

As Hadrian reluctantly made his way out of the bathroom to face the music, he could not help but fervently hope that he had managed to keep his mouth shut last night.

Given the way Draco was looking at him today, he had a feeling that this hope was in vain.

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**January 30, Day 30**

**Ucayali river, 900km from start**

**4pm**

 

When Blaise came too all he could concentrate on was the intense pain pulsing not only in his head but also slowly tearing his gut apart. He was distantly aware of panicked shouts and someone running back and forth. When he managed to open his eyes, he immediately screwed them shut again, met with the harsh orange color of the inside of a tent. What on earth happened? He couldn’t remember….he did not want to remember.

He shut his eyes tight again; someone was whispering in his ear, cool hands were on his forehead, someone was forcing something cold down his throat. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe. He just hurt. Hurt like he had never hurt before.

He felt a wetness sliding across his fevered face. “Hold on Blaise….not like this. Draco’s almost done, don’t give up now” the voice whispered.

He wanted to nod, to reassure but right now he didn’t think he could manage that small movement, instead he closed his eyes. He slowly allowed the darkness to take over once again.

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**January 30, Day 30**

**Ucayali river, 900km from start**

**5pm**

Draco sat unbelieving watching his long time friend sleep. Blaise’s breathes were no longer labored, it did not look like every breath was a struggle, like it had only an hour ago.

‘Thank Merlin’ Draco thought breathing out a sigh of relief. He could honestly say he had not been that scared in a long time. He had lost people before, they all had. It was a given what with the war. But that had been years ago. This was ten times worse, because none of them…well at least Draco, had not been expecting it.

One minute Blaise was laughing and joking with the rest of them, cheerfully accepting a glass of papaya juice that they had picked up in Iquitos. The next minute he was choking, coughing up blood, gasping for breath, eyes rolling, muscles spasming….it was terrifying.

The next words out of Hadrian’s mouth as the dark haired man leapt towards Blaise and scooped up the dropped cup had been equally as shocking, “It’s poisoned. We need the antidote, he doesn’t have long…”

The next twenty minutes had been a panicked whir of activity, Hadrian stabilized Blaise’s shuddering form the best he could, placing him on his side so he would not choke on his own blood, wiping his forehead down, trying to slow the fever that was taking him.

Draco had thrown ingredients and plants together; hands shaking over a flame that Hadrian had made using his magic. He hadn’t even paused to interrogate Hadrian on how he could use magic in the first place, he was much too focused on saving his friend.

The worst few moments came directly after Draco had finished the antidote, he had made one for Kapoes poisoning. Hadrian had instructed him to make this antidote, how he had guessed that the poisonous sap of the Kapok tree was what was making Blaise sick was beyond Draco. But they did not have time to argue so Draco had made the antidote and prayed that Potter’s luck did not run out now.

And it hadn’t, although by the time the antidote was ready it had almost been too late. Desperate they had forced the liquid down Blaise’s throat, praying that they were in time and that he wouldn’t just throw it back up.

There had been a few tense minutes where it didn’t seem to have any effect, but then thankfully the twitching stopped, Blaise’s breathing evened out, the bleeding stopped and he had drifted off into a uneasy sleep.

Hadrian had assured Draco that he would be okay now and that this sleep was normal, Blaise’s bodies way of repairing the damage of the poison, which worked by attacking and trying to liquefy the lungs. Draco wanted to laugh, or cry he wasn’t sure at this moment.

He didn’t understand what had happened, how it had happened. Everything up until that point had been going so smoothly. They had spent the remaining few days in Iquitos looking around or just relaxing and eating semi-western food.

Hadrian and Juan took turns showing them the sights, while the other one met with people or picked up supplies. All in all it was a much needed break from the rigors of jungle travel. They had left as planned on the twenty-eighth, refreshed and eager to move on.

They had spent the last two days re-breaking their back and shoulder muscles as they progressed down the river which had changed from the Napo River to the Ucayali River. It was slightly wider and more traversed then the earlier portion of their trip.

They had set up camp last night and planned on spending all of today collecting and recording plants. The first part of the day had gone as expected; Draco had been thrilled when he found a grove of rare vines. Oddly enough when he had showed these vines to the others, Hadrian had gotten rather pale and had gone back to whatever task he was doing before in a hurry.

Draco had just added his reaction to the growing list of things that he did not understand about his long time crush. Other then this astounding find, things had been going well. Hadrian was still tense and nervous at times but he was slowly growing more comfortable and open with both Blaise and himself.

All three seemed determined to move past their histories and had been making solid efforts at getting to know each other as they were now. So, yes things had been most positive….well right up until Blaise took a drink from that blasted cup.

It had been one of the cups that Hadrian usually used but as Blaise had not taken the time to wash up his dishes from lunch, Hadrian had relented and allowed him to use one of Hadrian’s spare dishes. The reaction had been immediate. What was even more shocking was that Hadrian seemed to recognize what was happening within seconds.

Now that Blaise was not in danger of dying and Draco had time to think about this, it seemed rather odd if not suspicious.

Draco was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of approaching footsteps; he looked up to see Hadrian slowly walking towards him.

“How is he?” Hadrian asked softly, his brow still creased with worry.

“I think he is okay now, his breathing is better….he seems to be sleeping peacefully…..”Draco answered, steeling himself for the next part of conversation.

“What happened? How did you know what he was poisoned with? You didn’t seem all that surprised….” Draco stated trying to keep his tone from sounding too full of accusation.

Hadrian sighted tiredly, rubbing his hand across his eyes before sitting down quietly beside Draco. “I guess you deserve to know…. As I said he was poisoned. I knew because I was afraid something like this might happen, not that I was expecting it to be poison, but I was expecting some sort of attack”

“….as for recognizing it….I spent the majority of the last five years with a native tribe. A tribe that specializes in their environment and all the uses of that environment. The poison that was used, likely lining the inside of my cup, is one that is used to keep predators out of the village. The elders fill bowls with water, blood and the poison, and then leave it in a defensive circle around the village. Often predators are attracted to the blood and drink it….thus poisoning themselves before entering to attack. It was more common a few years ago, lately they have not been using it because of its negative effect on the animal that drinks it” Hadrian explained sounding weary.

“What do you mean you expected something like this to happen? What have you been hiding, and don’t tell me nothing because we both know that that is a lie. You have been twitchy and jumpy for weeks now….what is going on?” Draco demanded.

Hadrian sighed again, “Yes, I have been waiting…” he paused and receiving a glare from Draco sighed once again before continuing,” a few weeks ago I found tracks that suggested that poachers were in the area….I-I recognized some of the signs as belonging to a particular group of poachers. These are not nice men. We-We have a history let’s just say….A few years ago I-I got unknowing involved with one of them, only to find out what and who he was. I found out that he really was only using me to get access to the tribe I live with. When I found this out I confronted him. Things did not go over well. Let’s just say that there is no small amount of bad blood between us”

Recognition hit Draco like a pound of bricks… “Anton?” he asked quietly, already sure of the answer.

Hadrian looked shock for a moment before shaking his head in resignation, “yes, I would report him but we really do not have any proof that it was him, though I am positive it was. He always was a sore loser…I can’t believe that he would….no never mind… thankfully you were here to make that antidote. I do not think I could have managed in the given time frame” Hadrian trailed off giving Draco a weak smile.

Draco wanted to ask more about what had happened between Hadrian and Anton, it was not the first time that the raven haired man had brought it up…true he had been drunk out of his mind the other time but still. Draco did not get the chance because just then Blaise started to stir.

Draco bit back his irritation as Hadrian jumped up and went over to Blaise, effectively ending question and answer time. He would not let this interruption deter him for long. Draco had many questions and he was damn well going to get some answers.

If it was the last thing he did.


	12. Chapter 11: (Mis) Understandings on the Ucayali

** Chapter 11: (Mis) Understandings on the Ucayali **

_Ucayali River_ _,_ _Spanish Río Ucayali , headwater of the Amazon, formed by the junction of the Apurímac and Urubamba rivers in east-central Peru. The Ucayali meanders northward from this junction for about 910 miles (1,465 km) through a densely forested floodplain east of the Andes to its junction with the Marañón River, 55 miles (90 km) south-southwest of_ [ _Iquitos_ ](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293337/Iquitos)

**February 3, Day 34**

**Ucayali River, 1100km in**

**7pm**

Draco could not remember the last time that he had felt so shocked or betrayed. Sure there were times during the war when his mother or father had said or done something that had felt like betrayal, leaving him gutted. But even when his father had basically served him up to the Dark lord he had not been overly shocked. Betrayed yes, but shocked no. He had seen his father’s unhealthy subservience to the monster for years after all….so it really wasn’t all that surprising that if the proud man was willing to kneel and kiss the monsters feet that he would be willing to force his heir to do the same.

But this time was different, this time he had not been expecting it. He had always assumed that they were best friends. Sure he was a Slytherin and yes, he was used to having Slytherin type friendships….that is friendships of convenience. But with Blaise he had thought it was different.

Their friendship may have started out as a strategical alliance especially while at Hogwarts, but going through a war together, surviving when many of their old acquaintances had not, had led to a deeper bond. Or at least that is what Draco had assumed. Now he was not so sure.

He had been a little shocked and hurt when he saw Blaise’s divorce papers, but he had been willing to forgive and wait for his friend to come clean. He had assumed that his friend had simply been ashamed of his troubles and had not wanted to burden Draco. What he had overheard early today though had challenged that belief.

He had been so relieved when his friend recovered from his near death experience that he had pushed his need for answers back down. He had been planning on confronting his friend about the papers he saw that very day. But almost losing yet another person dear to him had made the omission seem trivial so he his resolve to wait for answers had been reaffirmed.

He had noted that Hadrian also seemed concerned over the dark man, almost overly so, but once again Draco had simply chalked it up to Hadrian’s hero complex and the fact that he had likely witnessed enough death in his time. Both these rationales had made sense and like his growing questions, he had smothered the impulse to draw attention to Hadrian’s hovering.

The following three days had passed without incidence; Hadrian had switched to partner with Blaise, basically managing the canoe himself to allow Blaise time to recover. While put out over losing his proximity to their drool worthy guide, Draco had bit down his selfishness, knowing that Blaise needed the rest. He had even managed a tense truce with Juan; swallowing his scathing insults while the irritating man laid off pushing the blond’s buttons.

Things were going good, well as good as good be expected after learning that they were being targeted by Hadrian’s psychotic ex, that is. They had not had any other near death experiences and there was hope that as they moved away from Iquitos that they were leaving the poacher behind. Hadrian had been more cheerful, Blaise had been relaxed and the group had been slowly learning to work together.

Well until an hour or so ago that is.

Draco closed his eyes in hopes of blocking out what he had stumbled upon. It was no use, his mind traitorously dredged up the scene despite his protests….

_They had stopped early for their normal morning break, something that Draco had learned to dearly appreciate. Every rest stop had started to take on a new level of reverence; really any chance to get out of the perpetually damp boats was a blessing. Juan had wandered off into the forest in search of some sort of sap to patch up a leaking spot in the canoe and had returned bubbling with excitement._

_He had eagerly told the tired group that he thought he had found a patch of silver tipped wild grass, a grass that was not often seen this deep into the jungle. Draco had of course been just as enthused, as silvertip grass had a variety of uses in potion brewing and had for once happily trudged after Juan to view his find._

_Blaise still weak had declined to follow and Hadrian had volunteered to stay back and apply the sap to the troublesome boat. Juan being only too happy to get out of the sticky job had offered no protest. Of course the somewhat irresponsible guide could not find the patch of grass when trying to lead Draco back to it again._

_Irritated with Juan and having wasted part of their ‘rest time’ Draco had turned back early and headed back to where they had left the boats. It was just before he had stepped out of the trees that he had heard the conversation that had him questioning his friendship with Blaise._

_In his eagerness to return and sample some of the fresh papaya that Hadrian had cut up, he had almost stumbled in without hearing the men conversing. He had just barely stopped and waited before making himself visible when he caught the tense air between them._

_“I’m sorry Blaise, but I don’t think it’s a good idea” Hadrian stated, not looking up from where he was hunched over the canoe._

_“Why not? What have you got to lose Hadrian? Isn’t worth at least a try….if it doesn’t work then so be it, no hard feelings” Blaise replied his voice pleading. Something that Draco was sure he had never heard from his friend before._

_“Why not?” Hadrian asked incredulously, “I can think of numerous reasons right off the top of my head Blaise. For one are you not married? And as I recalled last time we tried, it did not end so pleasantly”_

_What? What the heck where they talking about? Draco wondered, willing himself to remain still. He might have resolved to wait for answers earlier but who was he to turn down a opportunity like this._

_“No.” Blaise had answered._

_Hadrian had stopped what he was doing and finally turned to look at the man, his eyebrow quirked in question, “No?”_

_“No I am not married, at least not any longer. The finalized papers of my divorce came through when we were in Iquitos; I have been basically separated from my wife for almost a year….as for before. We were young Hadrian, I was an idiot, I should have said yes when you asked me” Blaise continued his voice soft, full of conviction._

_Draco could not believe it, Blaise had told Hadrian of his divorce and not him? Were they not best friend? As far as he knew Blaise barely knew Hadrian….and what the hell was he talking about before? A sneaking suspicion was crawling up his spine but he desperately fought to ignore it._

_“Blaise” Hadrian stated his tone weary as he rubbed tiredly at his eyes, “why now? It’s been weeks why ask now?”_

_“For one as I mentioned the papers are officially signed so I am free to pursue who I want…” Blaise stated giving Hadrian a meaningful look, “Two…I nearly died. I don’t want to continue holding back waiting until the right time. What if I never make it to that right time?”_

_Hadrian sighed looking conflicted, “Blaise those reasons are not good enough….”_

_“What are you saying? Do you not want it to? Because if that is the case just say it and I will drop it, but I don’t think that is the real reason Hadrian”_

_Hadrian’s expression immediately turned blank, his eyes shuttered, “I do not have to explain my rationale to you Blaise. You may think that this is a good idea now, but you’re wrong. You did not make a mistake when we were in school. It…us would never have worked beyond a few fucks” he stated harshly, “Lots has happened since you have known me, I have changed I am not the desperate boy you used to know”_

_Blaise looked as if he had been slapped, anger and guilt warring. “I do not think you are the same boy I used to know Hadrian….I’m asking for a chance to get to know you now…”_

_Hadrian closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping, “And what about Draco? What would we tell him?”_

_Again guilt showed itself in Blaise’s eyes, but he squared his shoulders and answered anyway, “and what of Draco? This has nothing to do with him. This is about us, you and me….”_

_Draco felt a sharp twisting in his chest, as if he had been stabbed from behind. Blaise was the only friend he had and he had just basically said that his friendship did not matter. At least it did not matter more than whatever he wanted with Hadrian._

_Deep down Draco knew that this conclusion was irrational but he could not help it. The lies were piling on top of each other, becoming more and more damning. First the lie of his divorce, then listening to Draco’s heartfelt confessions for years and never telling him the truth. All those laments about Hadrian, and Blaise had never told him that he had had a relationship with the golden boy. And now to dismiss him like he was not part of the equation, like he was second best to Hadrian…again._

_Well it hurt._

_Hadrian sighed again, “You know that it is not that easy….”_

_Blaise shook his head adamantly. “I know that….Merlin I know that, I care for him too but I can’t just let you go again, not again….just, please? Think about it at the very least?”_

_Hadrian stared back at Draco’s traitorous best friend, “Fine. I am not promising anything but I will think about it…”_

_That was all Draco had stuck around to hear. He had basically ran back into thick coverage of the jungle, heart pounding, gut churning. It had taken him the rest of the break to bring his occlumency shields up enough to smother his feelings of hurt down enough to return._

_But he had done it, he was a Malfoy after all. He would not show how wounded he was. He knew better than that. He should thank Blaise really….he had become far too trusting lately, this was a wakeup call he needed._

_When he had rejoined the group he had offered the excuse that he had gotten slightly lost on return hence his late arrival._

_Hadrian must have seen something in his face despite his occlumency shields, for he had asked him his expression full of worry, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”_

_Draco had stared back at the worried green eyes, it really wasn’t Hadrian’s fault…any of this but somehow he still couldn’t help but feel betrayed by the former savior. “I’m fine” Draco stated resolutely willing it to be true,_

_“Just fine”_


	13. Chapter 12: Port in Pucallpa

** Chapter 12: Port in Pucallpa  **

_Guide book recommendation: Tourists heading to Peru should know that while this South American country is a beautiful destination with lots to enjoy, it's also a third-world country with a unique set of safety and security issues for travelers to be aware of._

**February 10, Day 41**

**Ucayali River, 1300km**

**7am**

Juan hummed with contentment feeling the early (well relatively) morning sun beat down on his both genetically and environmentally sun darkened skin. He was always the happiest while doing what he loved best, that is moving down the river.

It really was the only reason he had taken up guiding others through the jungle; in truth he found that most people would not or could not possibly understand the true beauty of their surroundings. It had often made him despondent towards his charges feeling their lack of understanding and appreciation wear away at him. That is, until he had met the enigmatic Englishmen so many years ago.

Hadrian was really the only other person he had met that felt as deep of a connection to the jungle as Juan did. It was because of him that Juan had not given up with guiding, burnt out with other’s failure to understand. No, he had met Hadrian just in time, the Englishman had renewed his faith and had given him hope that others might at least learn to respect if not understand the jungle.

It was also the reason that he saw Hadrian as his brother, by soul if not by blood. Because of this, the recent changes in their group weighed heavier on him then it might otherwise have. The trio was acting even more edgy and guarded around each other then they had in the start.

It was rather troubling…Juan had expected that wariness when they set off, but as he had hoped they had become closer and closer, slowly letting their various walls and defenses down. But in a blink of an eye everything had changed once again, and not for the better.

He knew that this partly due to his friend’s encounter with Anton. Juan wished he had been present….though looking back on it, it was probably better that he had not been. He wasn’t sure how he would have talked himself out of a homicide charge, especially one witnessed by others. So, it really was not all that surprising that Hadrian had drawn back into himself. He had been confronted by his betrayer after all.

Juan had been rather concerned when Hadrian had reported his suspicious findings of the hunting traps he had found, but they had both naively hoped that space and time would keep them from an encounter. That obviously had not worked. Juan had his own suspicions regarding Hadrian’s chance encounter with Anton in the market. He would not say anything, there was no point in worrying Hadrian more the he already was….the boy seemed to take on the world’s problems and make them his own.

Juan had long suspected after coming upon that horrific scene two and a half years ago, that Anton would be unlikely to let Hadrian go so easily. It seems that he was correct, not that Juan could possibly prove anything. That in essence was the whole trouble of the scenario, they had no proof. Blaise’s latest poisoning only lent to his suspicions. Though in truth he was a little surprised Anton had laced the glass with something that could kill, he hadn’t thought that the Italian would have given up so fast on getting Hadrian alive.

Whatever the Italian’s intentions, they would need to keep on their toes and watch for the next attack, because without a doubt there would be a next. So, the fact that Hadrian’s demeanor had changed, well not changed, more like intensify was to be expected.

What was surprising however was the new edginess of the other two brits. Juan did not know what had happened between them but something definitely had. Draco was unusually silent, withdrawn and avoiding almost everyone, besides himself surprisingly enough. And Blaise seemed to be nervous, almost acting guilty and weighed down by something as opposed to the light buoyant mood he had sported only a week ago. Juan didn’t ask, it wasn’t his business…he would stay out of it unless it started effecting Hadrian or himself, if it came to that then there would be trouble.

No one would hurt his brother, intentionally or not. He was glad that they would be arriving in Pucallpa tomorrow; maybe a few days rest would recharge the brits and help them work things out.

For now he would wait and watch….really this trip was starting to seem like more trouble than it was worth.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh  

**February 11, Day 43**

**Pucallpa, Happy days hotel**

**Approximately 1350 km**

**8pm**

Blaise perched glumly on the edge of the bed. He felt like shit. Not physically but mentally, his conscious was currently flaying him alive. He did not quite understand how things had come to this, everything was a mess. This trip was supposed to be a chance to change everything for him.

It was suppose to help him gain independence from his past mistakes, to start anew; discover something astounding and make a name for himself. Something that would allow him to have pride in himself, confidence in his abilities, confidence was not something that he had had in his marriage.

It was suppose to bring him and Draco closer together, allow him to tell Draco the truth about his own failure. He had always planned on tell his friend, he had just needed to build up the courage to do so. It was so much easier to accept the failure of others over your own.

But everything had gone wrong. It had started to go wrong as soon as they set eyes on Hadrian. Immediately Draco’s desire for the man and Blaise’s own desire past and present had set them (even if it had been unknowingly on Draco’s part) against each other.

Oh, Blaise had tried to ignore the pull, he had told himself that it was his fault that Draco was unaware of his feelings for Hadrian, and it was. But it didn’t help him feel resentment towards the blond. Listening to him moan, whine and fret, it wasn’t fair to blame Draco but he couldn’t help it.

And now he could not help but feel as if he had betrayed his best friend. He knew that Draco might not know that he had made a move at Hadrian, and it was possible to severe things before he found out, but it didn’t change it. He still felt as if he had stabbed the blond in the back and it was killing him.

Up until his marriage had failed, he had never kept a secret from Draco and even with that he did not really consider it a secret since he had always planned on telling Draco in the end. But now… now he did not know what to do.

He knew that he should probably take a step back from the boy savior, cut his losses here and now. He realized that Hadrian had not actually agreed to anything even after Blaise’s confession. He knew he was being kept at arm’s length. He couldn’t step away though, he had stepped back all those years ago and it was the worst mistake of his life. He could not repeat it.

Since he could not quit pursing Hadrian, he knew he should tell Draco the truth of what he had done. Admit his past history and what he wanted now. He didn’t know how though. He knew that Draco would see it as a betrayal of the worst kind, think that Blaise had been mocking him with his silence. He knew that Draco had every right to feel this way.

And it made Blaise afraid. Afraid of his own possessiveness, afraid of Draco’s reaction, afraid that Hadrian would never give them a chance. Most of all he was afraid of losing them both.

So he kept silent, and hoped for a solution that would get him out of this mess with both men by his side.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**February 12, Day 44**

**Pucallpa, London Pub**

**Approximately 1350 km**

**7pm**

Draco took a deep swallow of beer, being hit by an overwhelming bout of homesickness as the bitter liquid sloshed from the foggy glass. (Not that he regularly drank muggle beer back home but it was the principle really, and honestly it wasn’t all that bad).

The group had spent the day in the city basically on their own, more or less. Juan and Hadrian had taken off to visit some of the official law enforcement; to report the poisoning and their suspicions. Not that they had much success from their visit, they hadn’t really expected too but figured they would at least report the incident.

Blaise had signed up with a tour group to go and look at the local art galleries in the city…the city was much less jungle like then the other settlements they had crossed through and really did not have much in the way of tourist sites.

Draco still trying to hide his own hurt had begged off, stating a headache and had spent the day between his air conditioned room and the small outdoor pool the hotel offered, reading. Their guides had returned after six, looking less apprehensive but much more frustrated than they had when they left.

Juan had told them that they were all going out for supper and drinks, stating that this was one of the few Peruvian cities that played host to an English pub. News that there was a taste of home had been the final selling point and Draco had agreed, although still a little reluctantly to going.

Draco had taken to completely avoiding Blaise, not that it was all that hard as it seemed as if his friend (he hadn’t quite taken to calling him ex-friend yet) was doing the same. He had also been hesitant around Hadrian, unsure of how to act around the man.

He knew that he could not rightfully blame Hadrian for Blaise’s actions, especially since the raven haired man hadn’t even agreed to going out with his friend, but he still served as a reminder of Blaise’s betrayal…and thus made Draco hesitant to spend time with him.

As much as he hated it, the only person Draco was currently comfortable spending anytime with was the irritating Ecuadorian. Ironic as it was. And it seemed as though he wasn’t the only one that felt that way. Hadrian hadn’t seemed to notice Draco’s absence, as he himself seemed to have withdrawn outside of absolute necessary interactions with any but Juan.

If Juan noticed his sudden popularity he did not mention it. No he seemed much more determined to getting all three of them in the same vicinity. Hence the pub.

It was a good attempt, the pub would normally have served as a bonding point, but all it did now was make Draco more mindful of his friend’s words.

“Hey, what has you thinking so hard?” Said friend asked lightly, although there was a tension evident behind his light words and easy smile.

Hadrian and Juan were both over in the corner playing a round of darts, one that Hadrian was slaughtering Juan at.

“Nothing” Draco replied curtly, not raising his eyes from the patterns he was making on the glass’s condensation.

“Come on Draco, don’t lie….I know that it is something, you have been avoiding me for over a week now, what’s wrong?” Blaise asked. The concern is his voice sounded genuine Draco noted bitterly, knowing that it couldn’t be.

“Don’t lie? That’s rich coming from you” Draco spat unable to stop the hurt that had been festering from coming out.

“W-what? What do you mean?” Blaise asked his voice full of fear.

“Exactly what it sounds like… _Blaise,_ I think it’s rather hypocritical of you to tell me not to lie, when that is all you ever seem to do” Draco replied coldly, finally getting a grip over his emotions. If he was going to have a show down then he would not be the one to break down.

“I-I…” Blaise stuttered.

“Yeah…didn’t think I knew did you? When were you going to tell me? Or where you ever going to tell me…was it just too much fun to continue playing me for the fool?” Draco asked cocking his head, forcing his expression to only show glibness. “Poor, stupid Draco, pouring his fool heart out, yeah? Tell me why bother lying? You must have known that I would find out eventually, especially if you and Hadrian started to see one another?”

“I-I don’t know…I-I wanted to tell you Draco…I just I didn’t know how…I was afraid” Blaise stuttered pleadingly, “Please let me explain”

“Don’t bother. I don’t care for your excuses. I’m tired, let the others know I headed back to the hotel” Draco cut him off tossing a few pounds on the table and swiftly walking out.

He had to get away from the others for a bit, he needed to reign in his emotions. He couldn’t allow them to see how deeply wounded he was by this; it was not fitting of a Malfoy.

He walked briskly in the direction of the hotel, desperate to put some space between them. He for once ignored the muggy heat that was making his heart beat harder then it normally would have, he would be back in the nice cold room soon enough.

He really hadn’t meant to tell Blaise that he knew, oh well…too late now.

He let a sigh of relieve out as he saw the hotel come into sight, bounding as fast as he could up the stairs to the second floor he came to an abrupt halt.

Their door shouldn’t be opened, Draco was sure they had closed and locked it before leaving. He cautiously approached the door; it looked as if someone had broken the lock. He slowly pushed the door open.

He should have been expecting what greeted him when he saw the open door. He wasn’t though.

Their bags were strewed haphazardly across the room, bottles smashed, clothing ripped…the beds were shredded, the mirror in the adjoined bathroom shattered the glass fragments scattered across the floor.

The room was utterly destroyed, just like so many other things in Draco’s life


	14. Reconciling on Rio Ucayali

** Chapter 13: Reconciling on Rio Ucayali  **

_Ucayali is home to the_ [ _Amazon River Dolphin_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River_Dolphin) _,_ [ _giant otter_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_otter) _, and the_ [ _Amazonian Manatee_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazonian_Manatee) _, less friendly species found in this river include Red Bellied piranha and Camion. Note to travelers: avoid teeth._

**February 14, Day 46**

**1400km from start, Ucayali River**

**4:30am**

****

**_He let the cold drink slide blissfully down his throat. It had been so long since he had last gone out and enjoyed himself…he hadn’t had the will to have fun since he had left Anton six months ago. He had thought that he would be used to being used and betrayed by those he cared about by now._ **

**_It wasn’t the case however, Anton’s words tore at him just as harshly if not more so, then those who had tossed him aside before did. He should thank Juan for forcing him out of his self imposed seclusion perhaps he would be able to drink enough to forget._ **

**_Right now he knew that he had definitely not drank enough for that though, as he could recall the words that had shattered his fragilely erected life._ **

_“He had been hoping to surprise his lover; it had been several days since he had last saw the handsome Italian. Anton was often taking off for a few days here and there, he always had a ready excuse for his absences, but had Hadrian listened to his instincts he would have realized they were just that….excuses._

_But he hadn’t. He can still recall how excited he had been, he had found a new local hotspot and he was dying to show it off to Anton. Hadrian was much better with the locals and language then his lover was…he had after all lived immersed in the jungle for the past two years._

_He had come to an abrupt halt when he heard the voice of said lover drift past the slightly opened door to the room that they often shared. At the time he had thought it was odd as Anton was not supposed to be back for another two days._

_His surprise was the only thing that caused him to pause long enough to hear what was being discussed inside. He suddenly understood just how true the old adage that ‘eavesdroppers rarely hear anything good’ was._

_“Have you gotten anything from him yet?” an unfamiliar male voice asked._

_Being deeply in denial Hadrian did not yet make the connection to the conversation topic and himself._

_“No, he is annoyingly evasive when it comes to his precious tribe, but really it is only a matter of time” Anton answered the irritation in his tone evident._

_“I don’t understand the point of this charade, why not just kidnap the little bastard and force him to show you?” the other voice asked exasperated._

_Hadrian could feel an icy coldness settling into his gut._

_“For one he is far too stubborn for that. He has some fucking hero complex…he would likely let us kill him before he gave us anything useful…no, the best way is to earn his trust….” Anton answered pausing momentarily, “…plus he had an incredibly hot little ass, might as well get the benefits of fucking it” he added letting out a malicious laugh._

_“What if he starts getting suspicious?” the second man asked after his own mirth had died down._

_“Suspicious? Doubtful he is far too much in love with me…. It’s pathetic really. No, I have no doubt that he will give me anything I ask for if I play may cards right” Anton answered confidently._

_Hadrian had felt the last of his hope shatter, he didn’t even bother to listen to the rest of the conversation but turned and ran as fast as he could away._

_Oh, he was not stupid he had known there was something not quite right to Anton for a while now, but he was so desperate for a connection, any connection to someone who reminded him a little bit of home that he had ignored the signs._

_It hurt so much knowing that he was nothing to Anton. He could only thank the gods that he had never taken the man back with him to the tribe who had so kindly helped and nurtured him. From the snippet of conversation he had overheard it was obvious that Anton and the unidentified man wanted something from them. Hadrian would never forgive himself if his own stupidity brought them harm._

_That same night he had sent Anton an old fashioned letter, telling him that it was over and to stay away from him. He hadn’t seen the man since.”_

**_Hadrian swallowed another drink down, just as fast as the first few. He briefly wondered where Juan had wandered off too but then shrugged it off as unimportant. He was probably getting in some time with the lovely blond he had been flirting with since the start of the evening._ **

**_Hadrian crinkled his nose up slightly at the barely there bitter taste of his last drink. Unlike most people Hadrian’s taste buds were extremely well developed. He doubted that most people would have noticed anything in the drink, but he was not most people._ **

**_Suddenly he wasn’t feeling so great. The world had started to spin, the noise level seemed to increase ten-fold and there was a numbness to his limbs. He tried to speak out, warn someone that something was wrong but all that came out was a garbled string of letters._ **

**_“Whoa there Hades! Looks like someone has had a little much…hmmm?”_ **

**_Hadrian felt his heart stop at the sound of the voice. He tried to protest the hand that had latched itself around his waist, hauling him up, but his mind and mouth were not cooperating. He tried to pull away helplessly._ **

**_“Now, now….don’t make this more difficult than it already is….we need to have a nice little chat….in private” Anton whispered against his ear._ **

**_Hadrian was filled with dread as he struggled without gain against his larger lover, he tried to look desperately for help….for Juan. But the man was nowhere to be seen. He was suddenly filled with fear for his friend, had they done something to him? Was he alright?_ **

**_Anton dragged his protesting ex alongside him into a back room, tossing the drugged man carelessly on the couch there. He allowed another man in before turning sliding the dead bolt into place. “Now dear…we need to have a little talk”_ **

**_Hadrian could feel the drug in his system slowly losing effect, it was one advantage of being a wizard, muggle drugs of any kind (including alcohol) had a very short lifespan in his blood. He glared as harshly as he could manage back at his abductor._ **

**_Anton apparently did not approve of his defiance (he had always had an incredibly short fuse) for he snarled and smacked Hadrian across the face, “You are far more trouble then you are worth! Do you have any idea of the trouble you have caused me? Do you?” he snarled grabbing Hadrian by the hair and yanking harshly to force him to look up._ **

**_“You have caused my own men to lose faith in me you little bastard! They are all wondering how I couldn’t manage to get what I wanted out of one little whore” He continued his face twisted in hate._ **

**_Slowly the ability to control his facial muscles was coming back to him as well as his voice; “fuck you” he managed to whisper._ **

**_Anton snarled again, throwing him forcefully back so that his back hit the wooden arms of the divan behind him. Anton’s angry face suddenly changed into a predatory smirk “I somehow doubt that you will tell me what I want so I might as well enjoy myself a little before getting rid of you” he stated moving towards Hadrian._ **

**_Hadrian’s eyes widened in fear, oh how he wish he had his wand right now. There was no way that he could fight the man off in this partially drugged state, not to mention even if he could, Anton was not the only one in the room. An armed thug stood by the door, a lecherous grin on his face as he watched the proceedings._ **

**_Anton was using his larger body mass to restrain the struggling man below him, he brought his hand up to release another blow to the smaller man’s face to remind him who was in charge. No one and he meant no one humiliated him! To sever ties through a fucking letter of all things…_ **

**_The ongoing struggle within the room was interrupted by the panicked pounding from outside the door. “Hadrian! Hadrian are you in there?”_ **

**_Hadrian was not sure whether to be relieved or horrified at the sound of Juan’s voice. On one hand he might provide Hadrian with the desperately needed rescue he needed right now… on the other he might just have gotten himself into this mess as well._ **

**_Anton stilled his forceful tearing at Hadrian’s clothing and snarled at the thug standing at the door, “What are you waiting for you idiot? For him to draw more attention to us? Bring him in!” he snapped. Once again his angry expression morphed into one of glee._ **

**_“I can’t believe I did not consider this before darling….you might not say anything to save yourself, but something tells me you will to save your little friend” he purred licking the shell of Hadrian’s ear, smirking as he felt Hadrian shudder in revulsion._ **

**_Hadrian felt like crying in despair as his friend was grabbed and thrown into the opposite wall, the force causing him to slide down it. The thug that had thrown him now had a gun trained on the slightly slumped man. Hadrian could tell that he was still awake and conscious just pained._ **

**_As he watched the second man saunter over to his injured friend, the gun never moving from its focus…something snapped inside Hadrian._ **

**_All of a sudden all of the anger and hurt that he had been feeling came rushing to the surface. He would be damned if he let these bastards hurt Juan. Juan who was only involved in this mess because he had been trying to help Hadrian._ **

**_As the anger bubbled forward, it was not alone. The restrained power within Hadrian surged forward, unchecked by its owner, it caused his whole body to start to vibrate, a silver mist started to flow from his skin pulsing with his heart beat._ **

**_Anton gave a frightened yelp and leapt backwards shouting something at the other man that Hadrian could not hear over the buzzing that his power caused. He saw the second man raise his gun once more at Juan and he understood that the man was preparing to shoot his friend._ **

**_Likely planning on shooting Juan and then Hadrian to just clean up this mess. The silver mist reacted without Hadrian telling it to, it shot towards the man and began tearing at him. His shrieks went unheard as the power that tore him apart muffled the sound._ **

**_It could have been minutes or hours, Hadrian was not sure. When he finally became aware again, he was lying crumpled on the ground, Juan was kneeling beside him shaking him trying to get his attention._ **

**_“Hadrian! Hadrian! Are you okay? Come on my friend we need to leave now. Please come on!”_ **

**_Hadrian blinked slowly pushing himself up and looking around him. He was all but naked, Juan had draped him in a sheet, Anton was nowhere to be seen….Hadrian had to swallow down the bile trying to force its way up his throat as he took in the state of the second man._ **

**_He was no longer recognizable; his body looked as if it had been torn apart by some wild animal. Hadrian swallowed forcefully, making himself stand up his whole body shaking._ **

**_Whatever he had done had forced the remainder of the drug out of his system, he could not care about what happened to the other man. He was going to kill Juan and then likely Hadrian, his only regret was that Anton had gotten away._ **

**_He felt slightly ill at his own twisted thoughts but forced them back down. Juan led his shaky, sheet clad friend out the door, walking them both briskly down the dark hall away from the room and the main club._ **

**_The two men exited a side door desperate to leave the horror and gore of the night behind…_ **

Hadrian gasped, desperate for air as he bolted into a sitting position, the sweat and dread from his nightmare still with him. He tried to calm his frantically beating heart as he realized where he was. It had been a long time since that awful night had wormed its way into his nightmares.

He let the marginally cool night air hit his sweaty skin, and slowly moved so that his legs were dangling out of his hammock. He knew why he was having this nightmare again. It was more than the fact that Draco had come back to find their hotel room’s trashed two nights ago. It was everything.

He had hoped against hope that he would never see Anton again…even after he had he had hoped that the memory of what happened to his ex-lover’s companion would be enough to prevent the man from coming after him.

He should have known better, if anything Anton was a prideful man…he no doubt wanted revenge for how events had unfolded all those years ago. After the poisoning and the break-in, Hadrian could not help but think he should split from the group.

His presence was only making them a target as well. He knew that he could take on Anton easily enough, especially with his magic, but he did not want to risk injuring the other three. It was only by some miracle that Juan had not been hurt that nightmarish night.

The only reason he had not yet left was the fear that Anton would continue to target the group because of Juan. He did not want to leave them defenseless against the man, he knew that Draco and Blaise could not use their magic here and without it they were helpless against Anton’s muggle weapons. And Juan had never been a fighter, he was strong no doubt but that hesitance would un-doutbly get him hurt or worse killed.

So now Hadrian was in a bind, was it safer to leave or stay?

He honestly did not know.

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**Feb 15, Day 47**

**1475km from start, Ucayali**

**1pm**

Draco sat a small ways away from the rest of the group, stirring the tasteless rice and bean mixture with distaste. He was so bloody sick of the long, muscle quivering days, hot sticky nights, and bland, continuous meals. He was at the point where if he heard one more cheerful fact from Juan’s mouth he would likely be wanted for second degree murder.

Well, if he was being honest with himself….it wasn’t the travel conditions that were bothering him; no it was his travel companions. Ok, so it was everything. He had four main emotions that he had been cycling through these past few days; anger (at Blaise), annoyance (at Juan), embarrassed concern (over Hadrian), and finally fear. The last was not towards anyone in his group but rather for them.

He knew that he was being slightly ridiculous, it was after all just a break and entry…but it left him feeling even more vulnerable than he had already. That and he had seen the deep seated fear in Hadrian’s eyes when he saw the rooms, before the man had masked it.

He was so confused right now; part of him was telling him that the best thing for him would be to call this entire trip a failure and depart at the next city….yet another deep routed instinct was telling him to wait it out. That things would fix themselves if only he was patient.

Draco did not know why but he had chosen to listen to the later. He was distracted from his broodings by the sound of quiet footsteps approaching.

He looked up to see the last person in the world he wanted to see at that moment, Blaise.

“What the hell do you want?” Draco spat, glaring at his former friend’s interruption.

Blaise shifted looking both nervous and ashamed, “I-I….um well I….can we talk?” he finally got out.

Draco wanted so badly to refuse him and to continue ignoring the desperate plea, but he knew that if he was going to continue on this trip they needed to at least attempt to clear the air. He glared but gave a curt nod of accordance.

Blaise hesitated for only a moment before carefully sitting down beside Draco on the fallen tree, the blond was using for his chair.

“Look….I-I need to apologize. What I did was wrong and cruel and idiotic. I never meant for you to find out this way…..” Blaise began rushing his words as if he feared Draco would take away his chance to say them.

“You mean you didn’t mean for me to find out at all” Draco corrected not looking at the man beside him, his voice cold and hard.

“No!” Blaise cried in denial before reigning himself in to continue, “No…I always meant to tell you Draco….please you have to believe me, I was going to tell you about my divorce. I-I was just embarrassed because it meant you were right about it. That it was doomed from the start, you warned me and I refused to listen….”

“And Hadrian? Where you ever going to tell me about that?” Draco asked not yet softening to his friend’s explanation.

“No” Blaise answered quietly before hastily continuing “No, it was so many years ago Draco, we weren’t really close back then and well when me and him were together it wasn’t really a relationship just two scared, confused kids getting comfort from where they could. We were on opposite sides, I didn’t know who to trust back then…..and then well I called it quits and he disappeared. It was the biggest mistake of my life turning away from him, and after he was gone I just couldn’t talk about it…..then when it didn’t hurt as much, too much time had passed to tell you….” Blaise trailed off.

“I never expected to see him again, so what was the point on causing a rift between us for an issue that no longer was an option? Then we saw him again and I didn’t know how to tell you….I tried to convince myself to let sleeping dogs lie, but….well I saw my chance and took it. I didn’t think about the consequences or how I might hurt you in doing so and for that Draco I am sorry. Truly sorry”

Draco refused to look up from the rice and bean mixture he was pulverizing to death, his silence seemed to drag on forever. Finally he sighed and looked up, his angry posture slumping slightly, “Ok” he stated.

“OK?” Blaise questioned his voice filled with surprise and hope.

Draco just nodded before answering the unaired question, “Yes ok. I don’t know if I can forgive you…you really hurt me Blaise, you were the one person I thought I could trust no matter what. That trust can’t just be given back…”

Blaise’s expression fell slightly before he turned to Draco, “I know. I know that. Listen I still have feelings for Hadrian and they are not going to just go away. But I don’t want to ruin whatever we have left….so if you want I will back off. It’s not like he has really agreed to anything anyway. You are important to me Draco….please I made a mistake but I really don’t want to lose you”

Draco felt his traitorous heart swell at his friend’s words. It was all he had ever wanted, to be first, to be important to enough for another to make sacrifices for him. He had needed Blaise to say those words even if he would not allow his friend to put them into action.

If he allowed Blaise to sacrifice his feelings then he would be acting like the very person he had gotten angry at Blaise for being. No, he would not ask that of his friend, he had only wanted his honesty after all.

But at the same time he would not sacrifice his own feelings towards their guide, he was a Malfoy after all.

“No….don’t Blaise. I may hate the lies you told me but backing off will only bring future problems” Draco stated.

Blaise looked confused for a moment, “then what do you suggest?”

Draco allowed a small smirk to grace his face, “Well my dear friend….we are both former Slytherins and what is a little competition to the house of snakes? I suggest that we both go for what we want. Whoever wins, wins and the loser will bow out gracefully”

Blaise was silent for a long moment before returning Draco’s smile, albeit a tad more hesitant, “Ok, agreed. No sore feelings or awkwardness after, we each have until the end of this trip to woo the elusive savior. If neither of us is successful we go back to England and forget him?”

Draco nodded his concurrence with the terms, holding out his hand. Blaise seized the proffered hand and shook it sealing their deal.

It had been too long since Draco had indulged his Slytherin routes. Let the games begin.


	15. Relations on Rio Ucayali

** Chapter 14: Relations on Rio Ucayali **

_**Psychotria Elata, commonly known as Hooker Lips or the Hot Lips Plant for the shape of its bright red bracts that resemble two luscious lips. Found in the tropical rain forests of Central and South American countries like Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador, the Psychotria Elatra plant has apparently evolved into its current shape to attract pollinators including hummingbirds and butterflies. Affectionately known as Hooker’s Lips, this extraordinary flower has unfortunately become endangered due to uncontrolled deforestation in the above-mentioned countries_

**February 23, Day 55**

**1900km from start**

**Campsite along Ucayali River**

**6pm**

All in all it had been a rather strange day. Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration as it really did not rate anywhere on the Harry Potter strange radar, but still it had left Hadrian feeling…..well, odd.

He had always hated being the center of attention and after today he could safely say that had not changed. For the past week his group had been acting strange. He had expected some changes of behavior after both the poisoning and break-in, but he had expected anger and confusion. He had expected to have everyone pushing him away.

Even if they did not really know the whole story (something he feared he would have to rectify if he chose to continue travelling with them) they knew enough to suspect that the trouble was linked to him. The old Slytherin mentality that he was familiar with stated that they should begrudge him for placing them in danger.

But, that didn’t seem to be the case at all. In fact instead of pushing him away and giving him the cold shoulder, they seemed to be doing the opposite. If anything, they were constantly warring for his attention. That tied with the numerous flirty comments and innuendoes left Hadrian feeling rather confused.

Oh, he knew that they both had feelings for him, as mentioned before he had known this for awhile. He just didn’t understand why now of all times, they both decided to make these feelings obvious. And what was more worrying was the fact that he couldn’t find it in himself to mind.

The fact that he was slowly letting his resistance fall was bad, very bad. Everyone who he allowed to break through his self imposed defenses ended up getting hurt. It didn’t seem to matter that it wasn’t him who hurt them, it didn’t really matter….they still ended up hurt.

Regardless of reminding himself of all the people who had met untimely ends because they knew him, or cared for him, he couldn’t help but smile back when Draco made a lame joke and treated him to a rare genuine smile.

Had the blond resorted to using his shy smiles back when they hated each other, Hadrian was sure that Draco could have crushed him with little effort. Then there was Blaise. The Blaise he had known back in school was sexy, charming but cool and aloof. This Blaise was both of the first two, but instead of being cold and aloof he was warmer, funnier, and kinder. And it was throwing Hadrian for a loop.

His first fear was of course the danger he would be putting either of them in if he allowed himself to return their feelings. Anton had always been a possessive man, even back when they were dating. It was the one side of Anton’s nature that he had not been oblivious to. He had seen the way the Italian reacted when he caught someone staring at Hadrian. It wasn’t pretty.

Even now when they shared no real connection outside hate for each other, the Italian was surprisingly like Voldemort. After all, the dark lord annihilated anyone who tried to kill the savior that was not the dark lord himself. Similar to Lord Voldemort, he had a feeling that Anton would attack anyone Hadrian showed the slightest bit of interest. Even if it was just for petty revenge.

But even that was not his biggest worry.

No, the thing that was keeping him up at night was the fact that he found himself drawn to both men, equally. He enjoyed both of their company for different reasons but enjoyed it none-the less.

He had never considered himself someone who would fancy two people at the same time. Even if he allowed himself to fall for one of these men, despite the danger he might place them in….he wasn’t sure he could.

For if he had to choose he really had no idea who he would pick.

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**February 24, Day 56**

**1900km from start**

**Plant hunting along Ucayali River**

**9am**

 

Blaise stooped to examine the leaf of the _Psychotria Elata_ flower that he had found. The plant, more commonly referred to as ‘hooker lips,’ as it resembled a set of large, lips with it’s coloring the shade commonly used by call girls, was a rather common flower in the jungle. The reason this one interested Blaise was because despite its traditional lip shape of the more commonly found variety, this one had a lime green coloring.

Blaise could not help but feel a tad bit of excitement… though truth be told it had little to do with the discovery of this unusually colored flower. No, it was much more related to his increasingly frequent conversations with Hadrian.

Ever since he and Draco had come clean and made their deal, he had not tried to hold back on his flirting or the attentions he bestowed on Hadrian. And slowly, but surely Hadrian was becoming more and more open with him. It was rather gradual but he couldn’t help be excited over it anyhow.

He knew that there was much more to what happened between the raven haired wizard and Anton, something big that he was yet unaware of. He also realized that he really needed to find out what it was before getting in too deep with Hadrian. He may be acting more and more Gryffindor these days, but he still had some Slytherin preservation left.

Over the past week they had been carefully navigating around that discussion, talking about their past childhoods, new interests, what they had been doing these past five years, even a little about the war…but both men had shied away from talking about what was happening now.

The break-in and the poisoning incidents, not to mention the confrontation in the market had remained a taboo subject. But if Blaise had anything to say on the matter….it wouldn’t remain that way for long.

Lying awake last night, filled with excitement, anticipation and interest at the prospect of starting a real meaningful relationship with the boy he had believed dead, Blaise had come to the decision that if he truly wanted this with Hadrian they could not have major secrets between them. It was for this reason that he had decided to confront their guide sometime today and ask for the full disclosure on what was going on.

Luckily for him, he would not have to wait all that long as he saw Hadrian walking over towards him. With Draco and Juan otherwise occupied in another area of the forest this was the perfect opportunity to have a private conversation. He would be damned if he let it pass.

“Hey what did you find? Anything of interest?” Hadrian asked coming to a stop a mere foot away from where Blaise was crouched.

Blaise glanced up sending him a smile. Despite the decision he had arrived at, he couldn’t help but be nervous. He knew he needed answers from the gorgeous male, but at the same time he couldn’t help fear that demanding them would send Hadrian running for the hills. He really hoped it didn’t come to that. “Yeah….well I think so… this is a really unusual color for its species…” Blaise stated before diving into the entire history of the _Psychotria Elata._

Hadrian gave an amused smile but patiently listened to Blaise’s excited ramblings. It was one of the changes that he liked best in the man, this new enthusiasm. The Blaise he used to know would never have allowed excitement for anything to show.

When Blaise ended his spiel he seemed to realize just what he had done and flushed slightly, “um…yeah…” he trailed off lamely.

Hadrian let out a small laugh, “that’s great Blaise; you guys have actually found a fair few rare plants so far…that’s a good thing right?”

Blaise grinned despite his embarrassment before his expression changed to something far more unsure.

Surprised by the sudden change, Hadrian quirked his eyebrow, “Hey what is it?” Sure, they had only recently started to become friends (their fling all those years ago did not really count since they had not really been friends rather more fuck buddies), but Hadrian still didn’t like to see Blaise uncomfortable, especially after they had finally started to move past that.

Blaise tried not to squirm under the piercing gaze directed at him. He steeled up his courage…it was now or never…”Um…well….er…” he stammered.

Hadrian’s brow crinkled in concern, “Just say it Blaise, whatever it is…”

Blaise took a deep breath; “LookIjust thinkitwoulbebestifIknewwhatwasreallygoingonwiththisAntonguy” came out in a stream.

Hadrian’s expression changed to confusion, “Um what? Sorry Blaise but you’re going to have to repeat that”

Blaise sighed but did as requested, “ I just think that if you were serious about maybe seeing if we could be…well…be more then friends that I need to know what is going on with that Anton guy….” He trailed off looking resolutely at the flower in front of him, scared to see the other man’s face.

His head shot up despite this resolution, when he heard a sharp intake of breath. Hadrian’s face had gone from bemused confusion to pale and fearful. Instantly Blaise felt bad for bringing it up. Sure, he really wanted to know what he was signing up for but he hadn’t wanted to be the cause of that painful expression.

“Look, you know what…never mind…its fine….just forget I even asked” he let out in a rush.

Hadrian had not moved since Blaise asked the question but slowly shook his head, the shocked look slowly leaving his face. “No, you’re right….I was trying to decide how to tell you and Draco this….it’s just…it’s just its not something I like to think about and other the Juan I’ve never really told anyone. Not even he knows the whole story….” Hadrian trailed off.

Before Blaise could make another denial Hadrian started up again, “But your right, even if nothing happens between us you guys deserve to know, especially if I continue being your guide it could put you in danger….well more danger then you have already been in” Hadrian paused looking guilty, “and well you deserve to have all the information”

Not wanting to break this moment and cause Hadrian to retreat back into his bubble of mystery, Blaise just nodded and waited for the other man to continue. And continue he did.

Blaise stayed silent only nodding his understanding, or occasionally reaching out to touch Hadrian’s shoulder to show his support as Hadrian told his sordid tale. He spoke of the final Hogwart’s battle, of the spell he cast to kill Voldemort and waking up in the middle of the jungle.

He skimmed over details of being found by a reclusive tribe and how they welcomed him into their ranks, he then spoke of how he had met Anton and been charmed by him. How it had been so comforting to meet someone who knew and had lived a time in England. He spoke of the conversation he had overheard and his subsequent break-up. By the time he got around to explaining the club and confrontation that followed his voice was cracking with emotion. Finally finishing his tale and what he thought Anton was up to now he fell silent waiting for Blaise’s response.

Blaise for his part was stunned. He knew something had gone down between them and had suspected that it was fairly bad to result in the man trying to position Hadrian, but then again this wasn’t exactly something unfamiliar to him in relationships. (His mother had been known for frequently poisoning and otherwise disposing her suitors and husbands, so in a way Blaise hadn’t been all that alarmed by the failed assassination attempt). He was shocked at how trouble truly seemed to follow the former Gryffindor around.

More than that he wanted to find Anton and rip him from limb to limb for even thinking about drugging and attempting to rape his crush. Lost in his thoughts for revenge, he suddenly realized he had been silent too long. Looking up he saw Hadrian’s downfallen resigned expression.

“Hey” he said reaching out to pull the surprised man into a hug, “thank-you for telling me” He felt Hadrian stiffen at the contact but did not relinquish his hold, eventually the other man started to relax and lean into the embrace.

When Hadrian pulled away Blaise allowed him too, not disappointed. The fact that the other man had finally told him, even if he had to back him into a corner first, was progress. He could tell by the shy, embarrassed smile Hadrian sent his way before the man made an excuse and left that he had managed to break another barrier.

He knew that this had been weighing on the Hadrian for some time and that he had needed to share it with someone. Blaise could not help but smile….

Progress however small was still progress.

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**February 28, Day 60**

**2050 km from start**

**Campsite along Ucayali River**

**4am**

_So much red….so much noise. Why wouldn’t she stop screaming…oh Merlin let her stop screaming….. …so much red….so much blood. The smell it was everywhere. He couldn’t escape. Why couldn’t he escape?…those red eyes they were filled with cruel mirth, they were staring at him. He knew, how did he know? Why was it so silent, where was the screaming? Oh fuck why wasn’t she moving? Why wasn’t she screaming…_

Draco bolted up right, panting as the familiar nightmare slowly retreated as he became more aware. Merlin how he hated this nightmare. He shuddered willing himself not to think about the screaming. He jumped in surprise when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder, a quiet steady voice… one that did not belong to his nightmares asked “Hey, easy….are you alright?”

Confused, he turned towards the person that those warm hands and voice belonged to, shocked to find himself staring into deep green eyes. Potter. Why was Potter in his tent?

Then remembered, right he wasn’t in his tent, he was sleeping outside in the hammock he had begged the other man to erect for him. Stupid decision on his part, now that he thought about it. True his nightmares had been decreasing since entering the jungle but he should have known the one night he slept near Hadrian he would have one.

Blaise had been increasingly restless in his sleep and driving Draco insane. In an effort to actually get more than a few measly hours of sleep, Draco had begged their two guides to allow him to forgo the tent and sleep in a hammock like they did (being closer to Hadrian was just an added bonus).

But of course he had woken the man with a nightmare…how embarrassing. He realized Hadrian was still waiting for a response. “Um…yeah…jus-just a dream” Draco mumbled still a little shook up from his visions of torture.

Hadrian frowned in concern, “didn’t seem like just a dream….” He stated softly.

Draco flushed with further embarrassment, god he was pathetic. Still having nightmares over the war…a war that until the very end, he had been part of the side guiltiest for causing nightmares. “Nothing to worry about…I’m fine” he stated not looking up, trying to hide his embarrassment.

Hadrian frowned at the blond’s behavior but didn’t comment. “Sure, look do you want some tea or something? I know the nightmares I have make it impossible to go back to sleep”

Draco looked up in shock to see Hadrian’s sheepish smile and shrug, “You have nightmares?” he asked quietly, not quite sure if he believed that the brave, heroic Gryffindor could be plagued with something as benign as nightmares. He realized after he asked the question that Hadrian could take offense to it.

Instead Hadrian just shrug and said, “Yeah, since after fourth year really…I suspect anyone who went through what we all did probable does”

Draco hid his surprise at the admission; the boy he used to know would never have admitted to a weakness he was sure of it. Somehow he liked the fact that this new Harry could. He sent a small smile the Gryffindors way, “Yeah sure…tea would be nice”

Harry moved away from their hammocks, quickly and quietly starting the preparations for tea. Draco glanced over at Juan’s sleeping form, envious to see the man had not stirred from his peaceful slumber before moving towards to fire to join Hadrian.

He sat and watched the other man gracefully prepare the hot beverage. How the raven haired man could look bloody gorgeous despite it being the middle of the night, doing something so menial as preparing tea was beyond him.

After a stretch of comfortable silence, Hadrian handed him a steaming mug before taking his own and sitting down next to him. The wizard stared in silent contemplation at the slow moving river a few feet from their perch.

“So….do you want to talk about it?” he finally asked not taking his eyes off the river, Draco started in surprise. He wasn’t sure if he could talk about it, especially given the content.

“I-I….” Draco stumbled on his reply.

Hadrian turned to look at him, settling his soul searching eyes on the fidgeting blond, “Hey…it’s fine if you don’t want to…I get it, I hated talking about them….but it can help, honestly it can”

Draco saw nothing but honesty in his gaze, he wrung his hands together. Could he tell him? He knew he should, this secret had only become heavier as the years went on. He owed it to the man, after all just yesterday Hadrian had drawn him aside and told him the truth on what was going on with Anton.

Draco came to a quick conclusion, if the other man could find the courage to tell him his secret, then he would do the same. He was tired of being a coward, so for better or worse he would tell him.

“O-Okay…” Draco finally agreed, he took a deep breath and started to talk, staring determinedly out at the river, fearful of the condemning gaze he was sure was directed at him as he talked. In a choked voice he started from when the golden trio had been dragged into Malfoy manner.

He ignored the harsh intake of breath he heard from the man beside him and just let it all out. The fear, the horror, the disgust…watching his Aunt torture and taunt the brave mudblood. How Hermione refused to break, to tell her what they were doing in the woods. The screaming. Finally the silence. He just let it all out.

By the time he was finished his voice was hoarse with pain and grief, he noted absently that his cheeks were wet, realizing that he had started to cry somewhere during his story. He afraid, so afraid to look over at Hadrian.

But at the same time he knew that he had too, he had gone this far….he was aware of the possible consequences, he might as well finish it. He slowly looked over at the statue still man beside him; he met green eyes rimmed with tears, filled with pain, grief and guilt.

“I-I’m sorry, Merlin I’m so sorry” Draco stuttered the guilt and remorse for his inaction swamping him once again.

Hadrian stared back for what seemed like an eternity, frozen. Draco felt his last bits of hope crumble and made to push off the log they were sitting on, intending on removing his offending presence from the grieving man’s space.

He was just about to turn to return to his hammock when he was stopped by a warm hand on his wrist. Draco turned in surprise, waiting for the incoming punch.

“Stay” Hadrian croaked out, “please?” he stated as if sensing Draco’s hesitation. Draco obediently sat back down, waiting for what was next to come.

After a few more minutes of silence, Hadrian drew in a deep breath “sorry, it just….it just surprised me…I try not to think a lot about them, about any of it really”

Draco stayed silent, willing the stupid hopeful flutter of his heart to piss off. He sensed the Hadrian struggling with his words so didn’t move.

“It’s okay Draco….It wasn’t your fault…It wasn’t any of our faults…we were just kids, none of it should have happened to us…I don’t blame you…you were in an impossible situation” Hadrian finally stated softly.

Draco let out a shuddery breath of relief, feeling a huge impossible weight lift off him for the first time in years. He had needed to hear that from him. Despite knowing that he hadn’t been the one to kill her, he had always blamed himself for what happened. The guilt had been slowly killing him… if he had wanted to admit it or not.

“Thank you” he whispered softly, not bothering to hide the reverent note in his voice.

Hadrian turned to him, studying his face “You’re welcome” he replied just as softly before leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on Draco’s wet cheek, “get some sleep”

And with that he stood up and walked back to where Juan was sleeping oblivious to the world.

Draco stared after him in shock, lifting his hand to lightly touch the spot where Hadrian had kissed. As he shakily stood up himself, placing his now empty cup in the plastic tubaware wash container he moved back towards him hammock.

As he lay down and closed his eyes for the first time in years, he was sure that when he fell asleep he would not be greeted by gruesome vision of torture and pain but rather dreams of soft lips and green eyes.

 


	16. Joining in the Jungle

** Chapter 15: Joining in the Jungle  **

_The ropes that Tarzan swings on are called lianas (from the Latin ligare, meaning “to bind”). They snake up trees towards the light and then twist their way around the canopy and bind the treetops together. They can live for hundreds of years and reach half a mile long._ _have long used vines for food, medicine, hallucinogens, poisons and construction materials (to hold things together)_

**March 1, Day 61**

**2080km from start**

**Rest stop along Ucayali river**

**2pm**

Not many people believed him when he told them… but Juan knew he had a special talent. While some people were gifted with high intelligence, or great beauty, others might be talented artists or exemplary chefs….Juan had a talent in matchmaking. Ok, so it wasn’t exactly matchmaking per say….it was more like Juan had an uncanny ability to recognize attraction and sexual tension between people, and an even great propensity to predict whether or not it would pan out and last.

In grade three, he had somehow just known that Ms. Heruz was secretly sneaking off for ‘adult things’ with the barely legal janitor. When they ran off and eloped, despite the twenty some-odd year age difference and caused a huge neighborhood scandal, he had been confused. That’s right, confused not surprised. Surely, if he knew they were together others had too?

It happened again not two years later when he and his long time friend Cayo, first met his best friend Elena. The moment she shook Cayo’s hand he just knew that they would end up together. After another year and a half of intense fighting and grievances with each other he was once again proven right.

And the list goes on; time and again he recognized signs that others did not. It was too the point where he no longer questioned these inclinations and just went along with whatever his gut was telling him.

And this trip was yet another one of those instances, from the moment he had re-introduced Hadrian to Draco and Blaise he knew that the three would be linked in the end. Oh, he watched them fight and squabble, struggle with their own and each other’s demons, he watched and waited.

Now, you might think it would much easier if he told them of his knowledge from the beginning, but again past experiences had shown him it would do no good. He knew if he had suggested such a thing to any of them in the start (but perhaps Hadrian especially) that he would have been met with a fist to the face.

There were so many times when he just wanted to take the three idiots and shove them in a tent until they relieved the incredibly distracting sexual tension that had been building for weeks. But he didn’t… he waited, waiting for the perfect moment to insert his advice. Now that time had finally come.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**March 3, Day 63**

**2150km from start**

**Campsite along Ucayali river**

**6am**

 

Harry mindlessly ate his breakfast (a mixture of sugar apple*, rice and baked catfish, fairly on par for their normal breakfast as it was rich in protein and carbohydrates although not that tasty) while he pondered the conversation he had with Juan just two days before, all while trying not to blush.

Juan had approached him just before they took off for their last segment of rowing for the day. Hadrian had been once again lost in his thoughts, confused and wondering what the hell he was suppose to do about everything. He had never been one to run from his problems before landing in this jungle, but now he couldn’t help but wonder if that would be easier.

He knew he liked both men, and he knew they both liked him. Now he had to decide what the hell he was supposed to do about it. Hadrian’s childhood was not a pleasant one, and it had ingrained in him a sense of fear. Oh, he could pretend to ignore it well enough, even delude himself to thinking that it had not left him scarred and unsure.

He had long ago accepted that he was unusual, strange, a freak….as his loving family had made clear. He had pushed these words away enough to not let it stop him from pursing relations with another man, after a time he even believed that he no longer cared what others thought….what THEY thought.

But once again he had gone beyond the normal level of unusual….he did not want one man, but two. And those poisonous words, coupled with the feelings of vulnerability and helplessness that Anton had cursed him with, caused him to pause now.

It was with these thoughts that Juan had found him and pulled him aside. In his usual frank way Juan had told him to man up and go for what he wanted for once. He was not saying these words to be hurtful, that much was clear in the understanding deep in his friend’s eyes.

He acknowledges Hadrian’s many fears, issues and scars, but was telling his friend that if he let them hold him back he would miss the chance to be truly happy….perhaps truly happy for the first time in his life.

Seeing the understanding and not pity he so hated, Hadrian spilled his worries and concerns. He confessed to feeling selfish and unnatural for wanting them both. Juan had listened patiently, until Hadrian was finished.

The only comment Juan gave was, “ love is limitless Hadrian, the more the merrier’.

Hadrian wanted to snort at his friend’s Halmarkish saying, as it was not the type of thing he had expected to come from Juan’s mouth, but he didn’t. Juan’s words while seemingly straightforward and obvious to most, had given him reassurance.

Reassurance that he would not drive away one of his now closest friends (even if they rarely saw each other, he considered the man almost his blood) with whatever decision he arrived at. He had known this, but hearing it helped.

Now, two days later he had yet to talk to either of the men about Juan’s implications. He was finding the whole situation as it lay now exceedingly stressful. He hated being in the middle of them, it left him feeling like a piece of meat, a prize to be won. And he hated it.

He would rather have neither man then continue on as they were now. They needed to talk and needed to talk fast.

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Draco should have been in a better mood then he was. Juan had waken them up half an hour later than normal today (although he got the distinct feeling it was more because the Ecuadorian overslept then out of any real sense of kindness). Hadrian had kissed him….well sort of. He had finally adjusted to the loud chirping and whirring of the jungle, allowing him to actually sleep through the night, and while he missed his quail egg and cottage cheese breakfast desperately, at least he no longer threw up whatever disgusting breakfast concoction they gave him.

So, yes he should have been in a good mood. But he wasn’t. And the reason why he was not, had to do with the fact that Hadrian had been avoiding him for the past few days. He got a little satisfaction out of the fact that the raven haired wizard seemed to be avoiding Blaise as well….but still.

True, they might have been both trying a little hard lately. They had definitely been stepping up the flirting and ‘innocent’ brushes. But instead of achieving what they both had hoped for, it seemed to be having the opposite effect. In fact it seemed to be freaking the wizard out.

Draco had to wonder at Hadrian’s experience level, he was acting more like a blushing virgin then the experienced seducer that his looks stated he was. Of course Draco knew that Hadrian was no shy school boy, he guessed this skittishness was due more to what happened between him and Anton. Draco had to admit he was thankful Hadrian had shared this with them, at least it helped make sense of the confusing man.

After quickly washing his face and upper body in a relatively clean looking stream to the side of their tents (the stream was one of many that flowed to join up to form the larger Ucayali), both he and Blaise walked over to where Hadrian was staring into space, distractedly mashing his breakfast to paste.

Draco figured he might as well try and find out what was up with the man; after all he had no hopes in getting closer to him if every time he tried Hadrian fled. It seemed as if Blaise had the same idea. Draco grit his teeth to hide his annoyance.

While their deal had basically diminished the hard feelings between them, their naturally competitive natures had made them act more and more juvenile this past week. If Draco was truthful he would admit that they were acting a bit like to dogs scrapping over a particularly tasty bone (mind you whenever he had this thought his mind went straight to the gutter).

Blaise sat down on Hadrian’s right causing the man to jump in surprise, while Draco sat down on his other side hastily.

“Morning Hadrian” Blaise stated beginning to dish up his own helping of gruel looking slop. (Hey, he said he no longer threw up the food, not that he did not still want to do so!)

“M’nin” Hadrian mumbled back with a quick nod of his head, before going back to staring into space. Draco frowned at this. He may be in competition with Blaise at the moment but he still resented the unintentional snub on his friend’s behalf.

“What the hell is up with you?” Draco asked, the question coming out slightly more acerbic then he had intended, but the frustration of this never advancing chase was starting to wear his patience (and well, let’s admit Draco Malfoy never was a very patient man to begin with).

His tone or his words, he couldn’t be sure which one…seemed to finally pull Hadrian out of whatever daze he had been in, as his head snapped up to look at Draco, “What?” he asked confused.

Blaise looked at the man with a incredulous expression on his face while Draco just wanted to find a tree to beat his head against. Surely, even Hadrian couldn’t be so oblivious to recognize that he had been basically ignoring them for the last few days.

“I think what Draco is trying to say…”Blaise paused to find the right words, while Draco glared at him for trying to put words in his mouth, “…is that you have been studiously ignoring or running away from both of us these last few days, and we were wondering why that may be?” he finished calmly.

Hadrian looked as he’s been caught raiding Snape’s underwear drawer by the way his eyes widened and looked slightly panicked. It did not escape either of the other boy’s notice that there was a light blush across both of his cheeks.

“Well?” Draco pressed; he had no intention of not getting at least a partial explanation out of the man.

Hadrian coughed as if to clear his throat and ducked his head in embarrassment, “Iwasconfused” he mumbled.

“What?” Blaise asked scooting closer in order to hear Hadrian better, the fact that he was now basically pressed against Hadrian’s side did not bother him in the least.

Hadrian let out a deep sigh, running his hands through his hair in an agitated manner (Draco ignored the slight flutter of his heart at this gesture, it was one of the traits he was glad that Hadrian hadn’t lost over the years). Straightening and squaring his shoulders Hadrian coughed once more. “I was confused” he stated his voice steadier and now showing no signs of nerves.

At the two confused looks he got in response to his answer he continued, “I-I like you both…and well you both have made it fairly obvious that you like me as well….but I-I can’t stand this….” Hadrian explained his voice rising as he continued, getting more and more agitated.

“I can’t stand to be something that you are fighting over. It is ruining your friendship and honestly there is no way I can pick one of you without causing a renewal of enmity with the other. I hate being seen as a trophy and to be honest that is what you both see me as right now…”

“No” “That’s not true!” Blaise and Draco’s denials rang out over each others.

Hadrian gave them a quelling look and they instantly quieted down, realizing that they were doing it again.

Blaise sighed, “Your right” he stated simply. Both Hadrian and Draco looked at him in surprise. Hadrian because he did not think the Slytherin would admit to it in the first place, and Draco because he knew it was rare of the Italian to admit he was wrong (their previous argument being one of the only other times that it had occurred).

Blaise smirked slightly at their identical looks of surprise, “You’re right, it isn’t fair that we are treating this as more of a contest of will then acting as if we actually want to get to know you better. But in all fairness what are we suppose to do Hadrian? You’re full of secrets, skittish and well in all honestly broody….we are both attracted to you and you to us, there is no way we can simply back off and ignore everything….what do you suggest we do?”

Draco felt a small amount of pride towards his best friend; he had forgotten how attractive the man could be when he was being frank. He tore his gaze from his best friend to look over at Hadrian who was once again blushing.

“I-I well….um..I…together?” Hadrian stuttered before speaking so fast that Draco only caught the last word. He looked over at Blaise whose smirk was only growing, suggesting he had heard what the blushing wizard had suggested.

“Well, I know I have no objections to that sort of thing…after all me and Draco once were intimately involved” Blaise stated moving his hands so that they were on Hadrian’s shoulders and turning the man slightly to face Draco. This move allowed the Italian to move up closer behind Hadrian so he was pressed up against his back. Hadrian let out a squeak of surprise at the move.

Draco felt a moment of shock at Blaise’s words before catching onto what Blaise was doing and what Hadrian had embarrassedly suggested….

All three of them? Together? Oddly enough Draco was not opposed to the idea. Blaise was the only man he had ever been with, and he could not deny he found the man attractive…had his father not been who he was he might have stayed with the other Slytherin. And well Hadrian….yeah, he was not opposed to the idea at all.

Coming to this conclusion relatively quickly he allowed his own smirk to creep across his face. Hadrian was looking at him with wariness, while Blaise just smirked back at him communicating silently.

Draco moved his own legs so that he was straddling the log facing Hadrian, and losing no time, moved his own hands so that one was twined around the lithe waist in front of him and the other buried in the wizards long raven locks. Not waiting for permission, Draco leaned forward and placed his mouth over Hadrian’s.

He felt the man still in surprise, but as Draco stubbornly moved his lips against Hadrian’s the wizard slowly started respond, his own hands moving to Draco’s waist to haul him closer. Draco bit down on the wizards lip, slipping his tongue into Hadrian’s mouth when Hadrian opened it in surprise.

He was gone…overwhelmed with the taste of the bitter coffee Hadrian so favored in the morning, mixed with a taste that was uniquely Hadrian. Finally he drew back when his lungs started to burn to see Blaise kissing the back of Hadrian’s ear whispering softly to him.

The Italian’s dark eyes were almost black, pupils blown with lust at the display between the blond and ebony wizard in front of him. When Draco leaned forward after releasing Hadrian’s mouth to capture his own, Blaise did not hesitate.

Somehow it felt so right. Like they were meant to be in this combination, this triangle. All of them too complicated and damaged for just one other person to handle.

They continued on in this vein for the next several minutes. At hearing a loud wolf whistle all three jumped apart, nearly toppling off the log they were perched on.

Three heads spun to see Juan leaning casually against a large tree with a smug expression on his face, “Well, what are you staring at? We have places to be…things to see….” He stated.

Both Hadrian and Blaise scrambled upwards and hurried to start dissembling the campsite, Hadrian’s face a dark red and Blaise not quite meeting Juan’s amused gaze.

Draco followed at a slightly more sedate pace, his good mood reinstalled.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

* **Sugar apple is the fruit found on a variety of palm tree;** ** _Annona squamosa_** **, the most widely grown species of**[ ** _Annona_**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona) **and a native of the tropical Americas and**[ **West Indies**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies) **.**[ **[1]**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar-apple#cite_note-Morton-1) **The**[ **fruit**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit) **is round to conical, long with a thick rind composed of knobby segments. The color is typically pale green to blue-green, with a deep pink blush in certain varieties, and typically has a**[ **bloom**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicuticular_wax) **. The flesh is fragrant and sweet, creamy white to light yellow, and resembles and tastes like**[ **custard**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard)

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	17. Taken on the Tributary

** Chapter 16: Taken on the Tributary  **

_The U.S. Department of State rates Peru CRITICAL for crime due in part to the country having one of the highest reported crime rates in Latin America. At least 19 assaults on rivers in the Amazon jungle have been reported since 2009.-United States Department of OSAC: Peru Crime and Safety Report_

**March 5, Day 65**

**2265km from start**

**Exploring along the Ucayali river, rest stop**

**10am**

Hadrian could not help but be in a good mood after his, Draco’s and Blaise’s ‘conversation’ a few days ago.

While he was still hesitant about trying to have a relationship with either men, he was quickly discovering that they were both exceedingly stubborn and willful.

He found that despite his still wavering convictions and his ever present worries on the safety of their actions (not to mention his questions on whether there was any real point in pursuing something with men who would no doubt be heading back to England after this trip…something that was neither an want or option for Hadrian), that now they had ensnared him, they had no plan on letting him go.

And if he was being honest, he did not really want them too. The truth was, that although he would never have pictured himself in a relationship with two men, both of whom he had significant histories with… the three of them together just worked.

They may have only been together for the past 48+ hours but Hadrian was used to listening to his instincts and his instincts were telling him that that this was right.

All three of them were temperamental and passionate in their own ways; any two of them together would have been a recipe for disaster…given their different methods of communicating and dealing with their emotions. But somehow when combined as a trio the chaffing forces that were present in couple formations balanced out.

Harry had never been especially good at math and equations (not that Hogwarts spent a huge amount of time concentrating on that sort of thing) but he knew enough to recognize when an equation added up.

He did not care why their combination worked, he just knew that it did. He was not about to argue with facts…and the fact was that he had been happier in these past two days then he had been at any time in the past decade.

He was no longer the self sacrificing hero who threw away his own happiness in a delusional attempt to safe everyone from harm. Draco and Blaise were adults, he had explained his situation with Anton to them, and while he hadn’t mentioned his own health condition yet (which he was planning on doing eventually), he knew that they had enough facts to judge for themselves whether or not they were willing to risk dating him.

After an exceedingly long day yesterday in the boats, (one where they hardly stopped for breaks but did gain a fair amount of distance), they had decided on taking slightly longer breaks today…allowing for Draco and Blaise to explore this area of the jungle a bit more and investigate the changing fauna.

They had decided to venture out in pairs, Juan with Blaise, and Hadrian with Draco….as Draco did not want to venture as far into the jungle as Blaise did.

Hadrian had taken another dose of his magic suppressant last night and as was typical the day after drinking it, was feeling a little weak and out of sorts…hence the reason he chose to remain closer to camp.

Draco and the others of course did not know the real reason for Hadrian’s sudden illness, just chalking it up to a stomach bug or other mundane virus. Hadrian for his part could not believe how hard the potion was hitting him this time around.

While it was normal for it to cause him a small amount of weakness after drinking… this was far from usual. He had tried to play around with the recipe a bit, substituting a few ingredients for ones he picked up during their last city visit. He was hoping to find a way to make the suppressant last longer. And while this new formula would likely achieve this, it was causing much more severe side effects than normal.

Hadrian mopped at his sweaty brow, stopping for a moment to lean against one of the trees. His vision was starting to spin and his stomach was rolling in an extremely unpleasant way.

“Hey, Hadrian are you alright? You really aren’t looking it…” Draco stopped by him, debating on whether to lay a hand on the ill man’s forehead. As much as he was tempted he knew how Hadrian’s pride would make him react to a show of mothering. Draco briefly wondered if it was because the man had never really been exposed to that type of care…well at least not over any period time as far as he was aware.

“Ughnnh” Hadrian groaned out, swaying slightly.

Hadrian forced himself to take a deep breath and waited until he was sure he wasn’t about to upchuck all over Draco before he attempted to give Draco a real answer. “I-I think I should probably sit down for a bit Draco…I-I think it’s probably just a stomach bug combined with the heat…you continue on, I am fine. I’ll just sit here and wait….just don’t wander too far, yeah?”

Draco’s brow scrunched in concern, but nodded his agreement. It wasn’t like he would do the raven haired wizard any good hovering around worrying about him. “Fine. But stay here and rest, don’t even think about trying to get up and doing anything…I won’t go far, not sure that I will find anything of worth here anyway” he answered in his typical snooty tone, smiling inward when he got a chuckle from the paler then wizard.

Hadrian allowed himself to sink down and settle against the tree behind him, relieved that in doing so the spinning world slowed down. “Yeah, yeah…just go you big prat” Hadrian smiled making a waving motion of dismissal with his arm.

Draco leaned over and placed a quick peck on the top of his sweat soaked brow, trying to fight down the worry that was clawing at him. He wasn’t stupid, he knew that there was more to this illness then a simple stomach bug and the jungle heat…Hadrian should be more then acclimatized to it after all these years. But he didn’t ask, he wasn’t in the mood to start a fight, it could wait until the other two were back.

Hadrian would have a tougher time waving off their concerns when it was three against one. For now he would do as he said and go and have a look around.

Hadrian let out a sigh of relief as he heard Draco’s footsteps grow more and more distant. He hated worrying the blond, but he really wasn’t up to hiding his dizziness anymore then he was at the moment. He wanted to tell them, but he was afraid.

Afraid that when they heard he had Voldemort’s magic in him that they would turn away, cast him aside. Even after all these years away from the press and the public, the fickleness of Britain’s wizards still remained with him.

He doubted that Blaise or Draco would be the same as all of the sheep who were so quick to turn on him with little reason or fact but still….this time it was different. This time there was fact and reason, his unstable magic coupled with his temper made him dangerous.

He had no delusion that he was the next Voldemort or that he would suddenly become evil and start slaughtering people, but he was self aware enough to know that he had a quick temper and with the amount of magic he possessed… accidents could occur.

Both of the other men where Slytherins…would they be willing to stick by him despite the risk? He just didn’t know.

So lost in his thoughts and worries, Hadrian did not hear the sound of someone else approaching. Later he would berate himself for his foolishness.

“Hello my prince….you are slipping dear” a coy, syrupy voice whispered in his ear. Hadrian’s already churning stomach clenched painfully.

Before he could so much as lash out or defend himself, there was a sharp pain of a needle entering his neck….and then there was nothing but darkness.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**March 5, Day 65**

**2265km from start**

**Poacher’s campsite, 6 miles from group’s rest stop**

**1pm**

Draco groaned at the throbbing pain radiating from the back of his skull made itself known. Fuck it hurt. Unwilling to move or open his eyes in case that just exacerbated the pain, Draco tried to remember what happened.

The memories came back to hazily at first: Hadrian’s sudden bout of weakness… debating on whether or not to leave the stubborn man laying back across a particularly vine covered Kapok trunk…. reluctantly heading off farther into the wild mass of trees and exotic ferns…. Stopping to examine what he thought might be a toothed saber fern… A small swell of disappointment that it was instead the more common cousin fern... Startling at the sound of a snapping twig... Pain….then blackness.

Fuck. Definitely not good. He couldn’t help the fear that was slowly worming its way up his throat. Someone had attacked him obviously; He shifted minutely and felt a chaffing pain lance up from his wrists. It was what he had feared… he was restrained. The fear that he had only been vaguely aware of before was increasing exponentially.

Fuck! Where was Hadrian? What happened to him? If Draco had managed to let someone get the drop on him in his perfectly healthy and aware state of mind, he was sure that Hadrian who was fighting his own body would not be much better off.

Steeling himself for what he might find, Draco slowly opened his eyes. Going by minuet intervals until his vision readjusted enough so the harsh sunlight wasn’t blinding to him, he slowly let himself observe his surroundings.

He was sitting feet bound in rough rope, arms pulled behind him (similarly restrained) against the hard plastic back of a large crate. He felt his throat dry at the sight of a crate. Not good.

Blaise in one of his ‘befriend the muggles’ stages (just after the war had ended) had forced Draco to accompany him to something muggles called ‘theatre’. Not that it was anything of the sort; there were no men in tights on a stage…it was just some big reflective surface that seemed to show memories.

All while the more irritating groups of muggles (like noisy teens, and smelly children) sat and watched it. But anyway, the memories they had watched were about the wildness of Africa and its various animals. The most interesting part of the memories where about some sort of muggles that hunted the animals illegally… Anyway, those hunting muggles had used the sort of crates that Draco now found himself propped up against. This wasn’t what alarmed him however.

What alarmed Draco was that he recalled what Hadrian had said about Anton, and how Anton was one of these types of muggles….so…connecting the dots…yeah, not good.

Draco swallowed what he was sure was bile and continued his observations: beside the crate to his back, there were several large green tents in the area. A cluster of motorized bikes (muggles were so strange) and a group of not so clean or nice looking men holding those muggle shooting devices.

Draco’s gaze finally came to rest on another, all too familiar prone figure… who much to Draco’s horror was similarly restrained. Hadrian’s head was slumped, his body slack indicating that he was still unconscious (or at least that was what Draco hoped…the other reason for Hadrian’s slack body was just not an option in his mind).

“Ahh good I see you are finally awake” the man that Draco now recognized as Anton (from the market place confrontation and Hadrian’s later description) stated, sauntering lazily over towards him.

Draco rewarded his comment with his best Malfoy glare. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to faze the Italian.

Anton looked over at Harry’s still prone figure and sighed impatiently, “Hadrian on the other hand…he always was the most stubborn and irritating man” the Italian stated conversationally.

Draco looked at him incredulously… seriously the man was going to sit here and discuss his previous relationship irritations with Draco while the blond was bound and gagged? Bloody hell.

“What is it that he sees in you I wonder?” Anton returned his gaze to Draco looking at him with a curiosity, “what is so special about you and the other English prude that makes him willing to share his knowledge and secrets?”

Now Draco was simply confused and a wee bit alarmed at the slightly insane tint to the Italians eyes, what was he talking about? Knowledge? Secrets? ‘Fabulous’ he thought to himself ‘delusional and crazy’. Just Lovely.

“You know things would never have gotten this far if he hadn’t tried to keep all the wealth for himself” Anton stated. Draco wanted to roll his eyes at what he was sure was the beginning of the stereotypical bad guy speal. He was not to be disappointed.

“I was the one who learned about the gold! Not him! ME! He just happened to be the fool who stumbled upon the village that is key to finding it! They know where it is, all I needed was for Hadrian to lead me to them, and then they would lead me to the hidden treasure... wealth I deserve” Anton continued his rant, his eyes getting crazier and crazier.

Draco wanted to beat his head against a rock. He could not believe the idiocy of this muggle! Gold? There was no gold…and he seriously doubted that the tribal people knew anything about it even if there was. The stupid muggle had obviously received faulty information, mistaking the Golden Gia Lily and the tribes knowledge on its where abouts for actual monetary gold. Moron. No scratch that, mentally unstable and delusional moron.

“So why would he be taking you strangers and not me?” Anton re-asked, stopping his pacing. “Not that it matters anymore…you will serve as leverage for him to talk, and then we will get rid of you both.”

Draco’s eyes widened marginally, the man might be insane but insane people could still hurt or kill him…recall one red eyed mad man.

Anton cast another baleful look at the unconscious Hadrian before sighing again. “Well, since it seems as if he is remaining stubbornly un-useful at the moment, I might as well go and finish cleaning up this mess…”

“Felix!” Anton shouted turning back towards the group of rather Crabbe and Goyle-esk men a few feet away.

“Yea boss?” one of the bulkier men, (apparently Felix) asked.

“You and Kennick stay back and keep an eye on them...” he threw a glance at the two restrained wizards, “the rest of us are going to go and take care of the other members of their group”

Draco felt something like dread twist in his gut. The group Anton was taking with him easily outnumbered Blaise and Anton, and Blaise at least, had no experience in hand to hand combat. He was essentially a sitting target, especially since their magic didn’t work here.

Draco shut his eyes and forcefully willed down his surging panic, freaking out would do no good. He would have to wait. Hopefully, Hadrian would wake up soon…he had seen the other wizard perform magic inside this jungle, maybe he would be able to get them out of these restraints when he woke.

Hopefully.

Draco sighed, determinedly pushing his fear and worry away…for now all he could do was wait.

What was with Hadrian and delusional psychopaths?


	18. Biome of Bloodshed

** Chapter 17: Biome of Bloodshed  **

_Biomes are_ [ _climatically_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic) _and_ [ _geographically_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical) _defined as contiguous areas with similar climatic conditions on the_ [ _Earth_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth) _, such as_ [ _communities_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_\(ecology\)) _of_ [ _plants_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant) _,_ [ _animals_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal) _, and_ [ _soil organisms_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_biology) _,_ [ _ [1] _ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biome#cite_note-1) _and are often referred to as_ [ _ecosystems_ ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystems) _._

**March 7, Day 67**

**2265km from start**

**Poacher’s campsite, 6 miles from group’s rest stop**

**5am**

 

Things as they sat at the moment were not good. Not good at all.

Draco and Hadrian had now been prisoners for the better part of two days. Other then brief breaks to relieve themselves and even briefer ones to drink some of the slewy tasting water that the guerillas grudgingly gave them they had been bound and left to mull over their fates.

Anton and the rest of the crew had not yet returned, and from what Draco had told him that was a good thing. Hadrian sighed to himself…how had things come to this? Honestly he was a little embarrassed, to think that he had dated the psychopath for months without realizing just how deranged the man really was. Yes, rather humiliating alright.

From the few moments that their ‘guard’ had wandered far away enough away so that they could talk without risking being overheard (when the men did notice they were talking they were quick to dole out harsh kicks to the gut…for quote ‘conspiring to get away’) Draco had related exactly what Anton had told him and the Italian’s suspicions.

In other words they were screwed…not because there was actually gold being hidden by the lost tribe, but because there was not. There was no way that the nutcase would believe Hadrian when he told him the truth.

It was like Umbridge all over again…except this time there weren’t any centaurs to come to their rescue. (Unfortunately… Hadrian for one thought it would have been rather amusing to see the look on Anton’s face when faced with the horse-men).

While Anton might be deranged and a tad on the loony side of things, that did not mean he was harmless. Far from it, Hadrian was all too aware of what the man was capable of when provoked. And from the moment he had woken up (apparently a few hours after Anton and his group had taken off) he had sat worrying over Juan and Blaise.

While he knew Blaise had been involved in the war, he also knew that the man had seen little actual action. Blaise unlike Hadrian or even Draco had been relatively sheltered throughout the war and therefore did not have the same instincts or training the other two had. And well, Juan had none what so ever.

Hadrian shifted again, trying to move in a manner that didn’t further chafe the rope burns on his extremities. Draco had given up whining over his hunger and discomfort hours ago, so the two hostages were sitting in relatively comfortable silence.

The silence was not mean to last however; it was broken rather quickly with the return of the rest of their captors.

Hadrian let out a sigh of relief; the men appeared to have come back empty handed. Of course this was not necessarily a good thing…they might have simply killed the Juan and Blaise and left their bodies at the group’s campsite, but Hadrian didn’t think Anton would do that. He was the type who would rather drag the dead bodies back to display in front of Hadrian and Draco. Nice man that he was.

The group did not look happy which was further illustrated with their colorful language and cuss words.

“You are all fucking useless morons! Honestly, how fucking difficult can it be to find a bloody brit and yanyo? Fucking idiots the lot of you” Anton was berating the rest of his group.

To their credit, while most of the men looked offended at the verbal beating they were receiving they held their tongues.

After a few more minutes of colorful language Anton seemed to realize that Hadrian was indeed awake. “Well at this entire day won’t be a complete waste of time” he muttered at the men before spinning to move towards where Draco and Hadrian were restrained.

Hadrian glared at his former lover pouring every negative emotion he could into his glare. He once again cursed himself for experimenting with his suppression potion, if he hadn’t chosen to experiment with the make-up which resulted in an almost complete block to his magic (which had yet to dissipate) he could have freed both him and Draco ages ago.

“Hello daaarlin, so glad to see that you have joined us…” Anton purred his face twisting into a vicious smirk.

Hadrian ignored him, resolutely keeping silent.

Anton sighed dramatically, “now, now…must we do this every time Hades? You are going to tell me everything in the end anyway….why not just make it easier on yourself?”

“Fuck you” Hadrian spat back at him.

It was just when Anton was replying to his curse word that Hadrian spotted a movement in one of the trees surrounding the area. He could have sworn someone was there….deciding that their situation really couldn’t get much worse than it already was he decided to ignore it. Maybe it was a wild animal that had chosen to take offense to the men’s livelihoods and was about to massacre all of them in revenge….not a bad thing in Hadrian’s opinion. Then again hopefully the animal was evolved enough not to include him and Draco in that category. Right…he should probably be listening to the insane man in front of him holding the gun….

“You don’t think that I’m serious?” Anton asked his face red with anger. Hadrian knew that if there was one thing that Anton hated more than anything it was being ignored.

“Maybe I should provide you with a demonstration of just how serious I am?” Anton continued, though this time to Hadrian’s horror he grabbed Draco by the hair and yanked the tied up blond over towards him. Draco’s eyes widened in fear as Anton took the large machete he was carrying out of his belt sheath.

“Let him go Anton” Harry stated fighting to keep his tone even and calm, “let him go, he has nothing to do with this…this is between you and me, yeah?”

“Oh no Hades….the minute you decided to tell them and not me where the gold was you involved him in this…plus I have a feeling you’ll talk a faster if you watch me cut of his lovely little fingers” Anton threatened pulling Draco closer towards him and consequently the sharp knife.

Hadrian struggled fruitlessly against his own bonds, not again…oh please not again…he couldn’t watch someone else close to him die…he just couldn’t.

A crashing sound distracted all three of the men and Anton spun to see what was going on, dragging Draco around with him. Hadrian’s eyes widened even further in horror as he recognized two of the men dragging Blaise in-between them. Not far behind Blaise, Juan was being dragged along looking just as dazed as the former.

Shit! Double shit! Apparently the movement he had spotted earlier was not a wild animal but his two idiotic group mates hiding in the tree, and not very well if their subsequent capture was anything to go by.

“Boss, we found the rest of them…they was sneaking around the outside of the camp” the stalky thug who smelt like garlic stated.

Anton looked Blaise up and down, as if he was a speck of dirt on the Italian’s shoe, “Good, one less loose end to hunt down…shoot them” he stated dismissively.

Hadrian’s fear spiked to astronomical levels. Not only were he and Draco in danger but now Juan and Blaise were too! It was too much…there was no way in hell he was going to watch both men he had grown to care about and his closest friend be murdered in front of his eyes. He shut his eyes and concentrated harder than he ever had before.

At first nothing happened just as he was about to give up and slump over in defeat he felt his magic start to respond. It was as if it was swimming through an extremely viscous liquid, moving slowly…lethargically. But it was moving, and the more Hadrian concentrated on it the more it started to respond.

The sound of a gun being cocked was the last push his magic needed. And for the second time in his life an emerald tinged silver mist blast out of him heading directly for the various men holding guns. Unlike last time that this had happened, the mist didn’t concentrate on just one man but attacked several in the group at once.

Hadrian could distantly make out the sounds of screaming and cursing, but he was lost. All that he could feel was the immense power pouring out of him, it was enticing, consuming…it was everything…darkness and light, raging calm. And then just as quickly as it came the mist disappeared.

Hadrian was awake just long enough to make out someone with blond hair leaning over him, urgently shouting something at him. In the corner of his eyes he saw the movement of two others…it thought he heard Blaise’s voice but he couldn’t be sure.

Hadrian tried to force his mouth to work, to ask the blond man above him what happened but before he could manage it…darkness crept up and overwhelmed him.

Too tired to fight it, Hadrian let himself fall effortlessly back into the consuming blackness.


	19. Hospitalized in Huánuco

** Chapter 18: Hospitalized in Huánuco  **

_Huánuco was a colonial center where temples, haciendas and mansions were built in an area. This beautiful area has forests full of sought-after fruits like coffee and cocoa, along with a variety of protected flora and fauna in the Tino María national park. High mountains, hot springs, caves, lagoons, and a remarkable rock formation called Sleeping Beauty, make Huánuco the soul of the Andes, dressed in jungle._

**March 10, Day 70**

**150km from Poaches grab point**

**Hospital Regional Hermilio Valdizán Medrano***

**Huánuco, Peru**

**2pm**

Hadrian woke up, not for the first time in his life to the colour of white… that and the irritating beeping and whirring sound of life saving machinery. He groaned as his brain became aware of just how much pain his body was currently in, suddenly wishing to return to the blissful darkness he had just emerged from.

“Hey! He’s awake! Guy….he’s waking up…call someone!” a male voice close to him cried out causing Hadrian to cringe at the volume and attempt to burrow back into the dark warmth underneath him (which he soon realized was his pillow).

His thoughts latched onto this detail and made him open his eyes in shock, he was pretty sure he was suppose to be out in the jungle…and as far as he knew the jungle did not consist of the color white, beeping machines and pillows (in fact they didn’t even pack pillows, something that Draco had been rather put out about. The blond had not been impressed when Juan told him to roll up his sweaty laundry and use that if he was so desperate for a pillow).

When he finally managed to open his eyes without the harsh colors around him, blinding him he tried to slowly sit up.

“Whoa…hold on Hadrian, I don’t think you should be trying that so soon….wait a minute” the voice said again. Hadrian turned and realized that the voice did not in fact belong to a bodiless deity like he had first suspected (hello charring cross station and all) but in fact belonged to Blaise. Blaise who looked rather worn and exhausted, his handsome features pinched with worry.

“…b-aise?” Hadrian croaked out scrunching his brow in confusion.

Despite how tired the man looked he smiled at Hadrian’s butchering of his name, “hold on, I’ll get you some water…Draco left just before you woke up to go and harass some poor doctor about their substandard quality of care”

Hadrian smiled at this; he was confident that the hospital would not force him to stay here for long, if only to get rid of the blond menace. He gratefully accepted the glass of water that Blaise handed him taking a long pull from the straw.

“Juan?” he asked after letting the water sooth his dry throat enough that he could speak without sounding like Kermit.

“He’s fine…got a few bumps and bruises but overall he’s okay…he left to find another hotel for us to camp out in while you are in here…the last one only had a room for a couple of days” Blaise explained soothingly at the worried look on Hadrian’s face.

“Where are we?” Hadrian asked after a moment of silence.

“We’re in Huánuco…you passed out and we used one of the poacher’s jeeps to drive to Satipo… the nearest town…they airlifted you to the regional hospital here” Blaise explained.

At Hadrian’s worried look he quickly added, “Don’t worry we’re all fine…you were the worst off”

Hadrian’s shoulders visibly slumped with relief just in time for a nurse and what he would guess was his doctor to come bustling in followed by a cross looking Draco. Draco’s glare morphed into a relieved smile when he saw that Hadrian was awake and more or less sitting up.

“Thank Merlin” he breathed before pushing his way passed the two medical professionals to engulf the bed ridden wizard in a hug.

“uggph…” Hadrian groaned out as the hug jostled his already sore body. “Draco! Careful” Blaise admonished seeing Hadrian’s grimace.

“Sorry…sorry, just glad that your finally awake you prat” Draco apologized, though not sounding all that remorseful before releasing Hadrian and stepping back.

The two men waited patiently as the nurse and doctor bustled around Hadrian, taking vital signs, shining a light in both of his eyes, asking a slew of questions and finally checking his IV pump before stating that he was fine for now but Cara (the RN) would be back to check on him in a bit and to give the call bell a push if he needed anything more for pain.

Hadrian dutifully nodded his consent and waited until both professionals left the room before sighing in relief. “Bloody hate hospitals” he grumbled.

Turning his attention back to his two still worried lovers, he cleared his throat “So…what happened?”

Both men sat down wearily in the two guest chairs by his bedside, “Well we were actually hoping you would be able to tell us that…” Blaise trailed off.

“w-what do you mean?” Hadrian asked confused.

“Well, we were about to be executed….by _muggl_ es no less…” Draco started sounding far more distressed about the muggle part of things then the execution part, “when you just started…to…well, to kind of….glow.”

“Glow?” Hadrian asked skeptically arching his eyebrow at the blond.

Draco flushed slightly but stated in a stubborn tone, “Yes glow. A slivery light just came out of your chest and it-it attacked the muggles….”

Hadrian felt a sinking feeling in his gut, “and?” he asked although he was pretty sure he could guess what happened.

“Itburnedthemintonothing” Draco said really fast not quite looking at Hadrian.

“What?! Sorry you’re going to have to repeat that Draco” Hadrian stated refusing to look away from the blond who was trying to avoid his gaze.

“I said that it basically set them on fire until there was nothing left but ashes” Draco repeated this time looking directly at Hadrian.

Hadrian let out a small gasp and paled dramatically, his breathes starting to become fast and shallow. Blaise leapt towards him in alarm, placing his hands on either side of the raven haired man’s trembling shoulders, “Calm down Hadrian! It’s ok…take deep breathes” he instructed his voice leaving no room for arguments.

Hadrian tried to push him away futilely, his face full of distress, “How can you even stand to be in the same room as me? Much less touch me?! I killed them! I killed those men!” he cried out his voice still panicked and he continued to struggle against Blaise’s grip.

“Stop it Hadrian!” Draco shouted loud enough to shock both men causing them to stop their struggle, “It was not your fault…it you-whatever you did…hadn’t done that then we would all be dead…me, Blaise, Juan and yourself…you saved us…you saved me” Draco stated his voice going from harsh to coaxing.

Hadrian shook his head in denial, although this time less adamantly, “Y-you don’t understand! I’m dangerous Draco…I-I can’t control it….next time it could be you or Blaise or Juan…you’re not save near me!” Hadrian exclaimed desperately.

“Well then explain it to us Hadrian…make us understand…what did you do? Why are you dangerous? Please….we want to help” Blaise pleaded moving from restraining the other wizard to grasping his hand.

Hadrian let out a defeated sigh slumping back once again, his body losing its fight, “I owe you that much I suppose” he stated.

He took another long sip of water before clearing his throat and beginning his explanation. He started from the beginning of everything, skimming over the parts that the other two already knew.

He detailed his fight against the Lord Voldemort, waking up in the village, his memory loss, regaining his memory several months later, the explosion of his magic while out hunting, finding out about his destabilizing core, the potions he was taking, how it was his magic that attacked before and let him and Juan get away the first time, his experimentation with the potion because he was trying to find a longer lasting solution, and finally what he thought happened in the poachers camp.

When he was done the room was silent, he closed his eyes resigned to the fact that he would soon find himself once again alone. So, he was surprised when he felt the warm weight of two bodies moving to lie down beside him in the hospital bed.

“You’re a moron you know that right?” Draco asked the surprised man.

Blaise took over Draco’s commentary, “You’ve been travelling with one of the top Potion masters and Herboligists in the world for months now…and you didn’t think to ask us if we could help you?”

Hadrian blinked back at them momentarily floored, before blushing with embarrassment, “um….no?” he asked uncertainly.

“Idiot” Draco stated slapping him lightly over the head.

“Sorry?” Hadrian apologized again suddenly feeling extremely weary and worn out. Blaise chuckled at the man’s resigned expression. He was glad that Hadrian had learned better then to argue with them…they could be quite stubborn.

“Go back to sleep you git….I would guess that the amount of magic you used in the clearing has significantly drained you for the time being…it’s actually probably a good thing with what you told us and the amount of extra magic that your body has been trying to handle… it will probably allow for your body to recuperate” Blaise instructed pushing lightly back on Hadrian’s chest, causing the wizard to lie back down.

“ughh” Hadrian protested putting a minimal amount of effort into fighting Blaise off.

“Don’t worry we’ll be here when you wake up” Draco stated seeing the worry in Hadrian’s green eyes. Hadrian nodded in relief finally allowing himself to sink back on the hospital bed. Both Draco and Blaise made to move off of the bed but were stopped by Hadrian grabbing their wrists.

“No….stay….please?” Hadrian stated still sounding self conscious and unsure.

Blaise chanced a glance over at Draco to see that the blond was looking back at him, they smiled at each other before moving back so that they were sandwiching Hadrian in-between them.

“Ok, we’ll stay as long as you need us too” Blaise whispered smiling as the raven haired wizard’s eyes drifted shut.

And he meant it. As long as the other two would have him…he would stay


	20. Miracles in Madre de Dios Region

** Chapter 19: Miracles in Madre de Dios Region **

_About 13,000 feet below the Amazon flows an underground river, unofficially called the Rio Hamza. Researchers estimate this river to be wider (200-400 kilometers) than the surface river but with much less water flow rate (about a millimeter per hour). It originates deep below the Andes like the Amazon and empties into the Atlantic below sea level._

**March 16, Day 76**

**Approximately 2500km from start (including 150 extra to hospital)**

**Holiday Inn**

**Huánuco, Peru**

**7am**

Blaise squinted unhappily at the bright light that was currently trying to disrupt his peaceful slumber. He froze as the rest of his senses caught up to him….a peaceful slumber that apparently involved two other warm bodies.

Opening his eyes slowly he saw a tangle of sprawled limbs and two opposing heads of hair. White blond and dark black hair fanned out so that the differing locks were touching. Blaise looked down at his chest to discover that there was a toned arm sprawled across it, while his own dark arm was currently trapped under both men’s upper bodies.

He sank back into his pillow smiling to himself. They had finally crossed another boundary in their relationship together. Hadrian had been released from the hospital three days after he had awoken… Blaise reckons that if Draco not been in the picture and had Hadrian been any other patient, the former savior’s stay would have been longer.

The nurses had apparently had enough of trying to convince the stubborn wizard to stay in his bed, while the doctors were apparently thinking about taking out a restraining order against Draco. The trio had decided to remain in Huánuco for a few more days to be sure that their lovely guide was up to full functional capacity before continuing on.

They had originally talked about just forfeiting the rest of the trip but they figured that if they had come this far they might as well see it to the end… that and they no longer had to worry about psycho ex poachers.

Hadrian had wanted to see his adopted family (what he called the tribe) anyway, and both Draco and Blaise had insisted that if they were going to have any chance to find a replacement potion for Hadrian that they should continue their jungle foray.

Juan had gracefully bowed out as the trip was turning out to be a lot longer than he had originally planned for and he needed to return to Tena to pick up another group of tourists (though this group was a tad more sane and was only booked on for a four day-three night stint). He had regretfully wished the remaining members good luck, and to Draco’s disgruntlement given the blond a big sloppy kiss on the cheek (The blond had spent an extra thirty minutes in the shower that evening).

Surprisingly, there was no awkwardness between the three remaining men and they had fallen into an easy routine…one that did not shy away from frequent touching. It was almost as if their experiences from the past few months in the jungle had finally come together. It just felt right.

“W-what time is it?” the blond lump grumbled blinking blearily at Blaise.

Blaise hid his grin at the state of Draco’s hair, if the other man knew what it looked like at the moment there was no doubt in Blaise’s mind that Draco would have booked it straight to the bathroom and mirror. The jungle may have helped relax the blond to his anal vanity habits…but let’s be realistic… he was still a Malfoy.

“A little after seven” Blaise replied leaning over to place a soft kiss on the Blond’s bare shoulder, causing Draco’s eyelashes to flutter at the contact.

“mmm…” Draco murmured flopping back down, “What time were we suppose to leave again?”

“Dunno…that’s Hadrian’s department and as he is still sound asleep… I would say we don’t have to worry about it” Blaise replied tracing his fingers softly over the exposed savior’s spine. Hadrian didn’t even stir.

Draco grinned sharkishly at Blaise, “I think we may have worn him out”

Blaise gave an answering grin, “the question is why you aren’t as equally worn out?”

Draco gave him a challenging look, “I don’t know…perhaps you should change that, oh sex god” he said mockingly, letting out squeak when Blaise started to tickle his ribs.

“N-Not w-what I meant!” Draco wheezed laughing helplessly.

“Oh…I know…:” Blaise smirked before lunging at the blond, fully intending to give the blond exactly what he meant.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

**March 23, Day 83**

**Approximately 3000 km from start**

**Hiking in Jungle**

**4pm**

 

“…stupid f-ing jungle, bloody buggering bugs…”

Hadrian barely held back the snicker that wanted to come out as he half listened-half ignored Draco’s crabby mutterings. Apparently the tolerance the blond had built up to the canoeing part of their adventure, did not apply to any sort of trekking.

Of course Draco’s crabbiness might also be partly due to the fact that they had been living off of whatever fruit they could find for the past two days.

In the men’s rush to leave Huánuco, not to mention their…er distracting activities beforehand…someone had forgotten one of the food packs back in the hotel. Of course everyone denied it was them, not that it mattered in the long run as no matter whose fault it was they were still running dangerously close to running out of food.

Hence the supplementing with jungle fruit.

Luckily for them, they had only had about twelve or so overland kilometers to cover until they reached the tribe. Unfortunately for them, they were rather densely forested, root and moss covered kilometers (not to mention the heat, bugs and humidity to round everything off). Hadrian who was used to doing long stretches of jungle hiking was not all that affected by the conditions…the other two however….

“If you do not shut up I will personally hit you over the head and leave you trussed up for some vicious sharp toothed predator to find” Blaise bit out.

When it appeared that Draco was going to retort with an equally scathing insult Hadrian decided to intervene before he was the only one left in their three man party. “Why don’t we stop and take a bit of a break…from my calculations we shouldn’t be that far off”

“Fine” Draco agreed trying to sound less eager to stop then he actually was.

They walked a little further until they found a slightly less dense area of jungle with a few fallen trees that looked amendable to serving as a break area. All three lowered heavy packs off their sweating backs gratefully.

“I thought I saw some guava not far back, I going to go grab some” Hadrian stated after getting rid of his own pack. Draco sent him a look clearly stating that he did not want guava fruit but would rather have greasy pub food. Hadrian ignored him and set off.

Blaise sighed, “I’m going to go help him try and not annoy the poor jungle animals too much while we’re gone love”

Draco sent him a half hearted glare but leaned back against a fallen tree wearily. He let the various bird calls and sound of chattering monkeys of some variety lull him into a light doze. One that was interrupted with by the sound of Blaise’s excited shouting.

“..aco…Draco! come here! I found it! Draco I found it!!”

Draco opened his eyes reluctantly wondering just what crazy train his friend-now lover had fallen off of. What the hell was he shouting about? He moodily got to his feet and followed the sound of Blaise’s bellowing. It wasn’t long until he came upon Blaise who was crouched over some sort of flower.

Hadrian arrived only a moment after him, his arms filled with green wrinkly looking fruit. “What are you yelling about Blaise…it’s not exactly the best idea to reveal your location…” he admonished but stopped when he realized what Blaise was examining.

“Oh Merlin! I can’t believe it…” he stated sounding awed.

By this time Draco was feeling rather left out, so he pushed his way past where Hadrian was standing so that he could see what all the fuss was about.

“Is that….?” He asked in disbelief.

Blaise nodded excitedly but chose not to answer, as if it might make the flower disappear. Draco stared down at the beautiful golden flower in front of them. It was the Golden Gia Lily….the flower that was the whole reason behind this expedition. A flower that until now he had not truly believed existed….

“Wow” he stated

“Yeah” Hadrian agreed seemingly just as speechless.

“That’s not even the best part...” Blaise said looking at both of them. When Hadrian and Draco both raised their eyebrow in question (apparently spending so much time together caused them to adopt each other’s mannerisms) he continued, “There are more of them”

For the first time since Draco had arrived at the spot Blaise was crouching in he took in the rest of their surroundings…Blaise was correct, there were dozens of the golden flowers scattered amongst the vines and tree trunks.

The trio spent the next hour photographing the flowers, as well as taking various cuttings. They did not cut off an entire plant, but rather took just bits and pieces of several different ones; allowing the plant to replace the parts they had taken.

They marked the spot they had found the flowers so that they could come back and examine them more thoroughly when time permitted before returning to their packs and setting off again. They only had an hour or two before night fell and they hoped to reach the tribe before that point.

Thankfully, they were closer to their destination then they had thought and all three paused to admire what lay in front of them.

They could just make out the curling smoke from a wood fire, and hear the distant sound of ringing laughter that was slightly dampened by the green foliage around them.

Hadrian turned to both Draco and Blaise, a huge smile adorning his face… “I’m home” he stated his voice full of joy.

Draco shook his head at him, “no…. _we’re_ home” he corrected.

The answering smile he received was worth it.


	21. Epilogue: five years later….

** Epilogue: five years later….  **

_It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” ―_ [ _Ernest Hemingway_ ](http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1455.Ernest_Hemingway)

**July 20, 2007**

**British Ministry of Magic**

**Minster Shacklebolt’s office**

**8am**

Kingsley Shacklebolt shut his office door with a resounding click, praying that he would be allowed five minutes of peace.

Peace which he planned to use to enjoy his cup of tea and sort through the ever building pile of letters that were getting scarily close to causing an avalanche. One he did not fancy being on the bottom of.

He plucked a letter randomly from the teetering pile, hoping that for once it would be something other than complete rubbish from a concerned citizen who had zero responsibilities but more than their share of opinions.

What he read made him want to laugh; it wasn’t even a letter from one of his own c _itizens_ for crying out loud! But one from a witch in Pakistan of all places.

_Dear British Ministry of Magic,_

_I am writing you with very important information._

_It is well known that your ministry is still looking for the where abouts of the boy you call Harry James Potter. I am writing you to tell you that I have recently spotted him! He was in the company of two of your better known citizens, a blond man who I believe was Draco Lucius Malfoy and a darker man who resembled the renowned herbologist, Blaise Zabini._

_For a small fee I would be willing to divulge where and when I saw these individuals. Please write back at the address provided if you are interested._

_All the best,_

_Sureiez Gerna Forbes_

_436 kenzi road_

_Askole, Pakistan_

 

Kingsley snorted to himself in disbelief; really did people not even try to make their claims believable any more? He had been inundated with letters and statements claiming to have spotted the missing boy hero for the past decade; at first the Auror corps had put their best efforts into investigating these claims…but now…

Too much time had passed to believe the man could possibly be alive, and even more ludicrous was the statement that he would be found in the company of two ex-Slytherins of all things. Two Slytherins whom he had a nasty rapport with in school.

Honestly, people had too much time on their hands.

While it was true that both former Slytherins for the past five years (ever since their Amazon research trip in fact) had only worked for six months at the Minstery every year, using the remaining six to go off and explore together (hey, Kingsley was open minded… if those two wanted to maintain a covert relationship it wasn’t any of his business) it was ludicrous to think that they had somehow discovered where Britain’s missing hero was and were secretly leaving to spend time with him.

Much more believable was that they had simply developed a taste for adventure travelling and wanted to continue spending half of every year doing so.

Kingsley let out another snort of amusement before crumpling the letter and tossing in the rubbish bin. Some days he thought he was getting too old for this job. He promptly forgot about the letter as he left the office to go and talk to Finnegan about the muggle born/ pure blood symposium that was coming up.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Several thousand miles away, three triumphant men shared a passionate kiss on the summit of the infamous K2.


End file.
